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A  Study  of  Melodrama  in 
England  from  1800  to  1840 


A  THESIS 

Presented  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements 
for  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


BY 
WILLIAM  S.  DYE  JR. 


A  Study  of  Melodrama  in 
England  from  1800  to  1840 


A  THESIS 

Presented  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements 
for  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


BY 


WILLIAM  S.  DYE  JR. 


STATE  COLLEGE,  PENNSYLVANIA 
THE  NITTANY  PRINTING  AND  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1919 


'<-••-. 


PREFACE 

One  of  the  manifestations  of  the  Romantic  Movement 
in  England  was  the  rise  and  great  popularity  of  melo- 
drama. Because  of  the  paucity  of  literary  attainments 
that  accompanied  melodrama,  this  type  of  play  has  been 
uniformly  neglected  or  else  passed  over  with  slight  com- 
ments. Although  it  is  "true  that  few  melodramas  deserve 
mention  if  style  and  high  dramatic  qualities  are  to  be  con- 
sidered, nevertheless,  inasmuch  as  the  form  has  contrib- 
uted largely  to  the  art  of  the  theatre,  the  neglect  is  hard 
to  explain.  This  investigation  of  the  dramatic  and  theat- 
rical history  of  England  between  the  years  1764  and  1840 
has  been  made,  therefore,  in  an  attempt  to  supply  some 
information  about  an  almost  unknown  group  of  plays  and 
playwrights. 

The  great  variety  of  forms  that  melodrama  assumed 
and  the  great  number  of  methods  employed  in  its  manu- 
facture, the  many  devices  that  were  employed,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  to  disguise  it,  have  rendered  the  discov- 
ery of  entirely  satisfactory  criteria  for  its  determination, 
difficult.  That  difficulty  is  constantly  emphasized  by  th*e 
great  number  of  definitions  that  have  been  constructed  to 
designate  it.  If  these  difficulties  have  not  been  altogether 
overcome  in  this  study,  it  is  because  no  one  clear  cut 
standard  of  melodrama  existed  in  the  period  under  consid- 
eration, as  no  single  type  of  melodrama  exists  today. 

Throughout  the  investigation,  it  was  deemed  wise  to 
give  weight  to  the  statements  of  the  men  whose  business 
it  was  to  handle  plays  and  players  in  the  last  decades  of 
the  eighteenth  and  the  first  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
centuries.  If  Elliston,  Colman,  Jerrold,  Boaden,  or  Mac- 
ready  looked  upon  a  certain  type  of  play  as  a  melodrama, 
surely  his  judgment  reflects  the  standard  of  his  day  as  the 
declarations  of  Mr.  Henry  Arthur  Jones,  Mr.  William 
Archer,  or  Mr.  Owen  Davis  reflect  the  standard  of  ours. 

A  further  explanation  seems  necessary  in  this  fore- 
word. Both  the  spelling  of  the  word  melodrama  and  the 
form  which  the  word  designated  changed  often  in  a  few 
decades.  What  was  true  in  England  was  equally  true  in 
France  whence  the  English  word  was  borrowed.  In  Eng- 
land, after  1802,  the  following  changes  in  spelling  may 


420201 


be  noted:  melo-drame,  melo-drama,  melodrama.  The 
changes  in  form  and  matter  are  the  subject  of  this  study. 
In  France,  says  Dr.  Mason  in  his  monograph,  "Melodrama 
in  France  from  the  Revolution  to  the  Beginning  of  the 
Romantic  Drama,  1791-1830,"  "With  regard  to  the  word 
melodrame,  there  were  the  following  changes  in  meaning: 
when  first  introduced  into  France  from  Italy  the  word  was 
used  as  a  synonym  for  opera  in  general;  in  1781,  at  Du- 
Bois'  suggestion  it  acquired  the  meaning  of  scene  lyrique 
and  during  the  Revolution  began  to  be  applied  to  panto- 
mime with  dialogue" (p.34) ;  and  in  his  preface,  he  says 
that  after  1800,  popular  tragedy  "appeared  in  its  defini- 
tive form  under  the  name  melodrama." 

In  general,  the  same  kinds  of  play,  with  other  varia- 
tions which  resulted  from  legal  restrictions,  occur  in  the 
melodrama  in  England.  The  development,  too,  of  the 
English  type,  which,  it  should  be  added,  was  in  no  small 
degree  influenced  by  the  French  product,  was  similar  to 
that  of  its  French  cousin,  as  was  the  date  of  its  emergence 
into  Bulwer  Lytton's  romantic  drama. 

WILLIAM   S.   DYE,   Jr. 

State  College,  Pennsylvania 
November,  1919. 


CHAPTER    I 

On  November  13,  1802,  Thomas  Holcroft's  "melo- 
drame,"  "A  Tale  of  Mystery,"  was  performed  at  Covent 
Garden.  Because  this  play  has  usually  been  considered 
the  first  of  the  melodramas  in  England,*  as  it  is  the  first 
to  be  definitely  so  called  there,  it  has  been  chosen  as  the 
point  of  departure  for  this  study.  The  statements  made 
in  this  connection  may  be  accepted  as  true,  however,  only 
in  so  far  as  the  word  "melo-drame"  is  concerned,  for  it  is 
hardly  true,  as  is  sometimes  asserted,  that  this  play  was 
the  first  of  its  kind  in  England;  and  it  is  absolutely  cer- 
tain that  among  English  speaking  peoples  Holcroft's  play 
was  not  the  first  to  be  rightly  designated  for,  in  1799,  ap- 
peared a  play  by  John  E.  Turnbull,  called  "Rudolph;  or, 
the  Robbers  of  Calabria,  a  melodrama  in  Three  Acts,  as 
performed  at  the  Boston  Theatre,  Boston,  1799."  (Oscar 
Wegelin,  "Early  American  Plays,  1714-1830"  a  biblio- 
graphy). Other  examples  of  plays  which  had  the  same 
characteristics  as  Holcroft's  play  will  be  mentioned  later. 

Inasmuch  as  "A  Tale  of  Mystery"  has  been  selected  as 
a  point  of  departure,  it  may  be  well  at  the  outset  to  make 
some  examination  of  its  plot  and  form  in  order  to  point 
out  some  of  the  differences  which  exist  between  it  and 
other  forms  of  drama.  The  play,  which  is  an  alteration  of 
"Seline,  ou,  L'Enfant  Mystere,"  which  Holcroft  had  wit- 
nessed in  Paris  and  had  brought  back  to  London,  tells  of 
two  brothers,  Romaldi  and  Francisco,  and  the  daughter  of 
the  latter.  The  plot  is  concerned  with  attempts  made  on 
the  life  of  Francisco  and  on  the  reputation  of  his  daughter 
by  Romaldi  in  order  that  he  may  secure  their  money  and 
position.  Pound  out  in  his  treachery,  however,  he  is  pur- 
sued, captured,  and  finally  forgiven,  while  father  -and 
daughter,  their  wrongs  righted,  are  restored  to  each  other's 
arms. 

An  analysis  of  the  melodrama  discloses  the  following 


*  "A  Tale  of  Mystery"  "was  remarkable,  not  only  for  its  great 
and  merited  success,  but  for  the  circumstances  of  its  being  the 
first  entertainment  acted  on  the  English  Stage  under  the  descrip- 
tion of  melo-drame.'  (Dibdin,  "Reminiscences",  I: p.  337.  See 
also  Genest,  VII: p.  578;  Thorndike,  "Tragedy",  p.- 334;  Dunlap, 
"American  Drama",  p.  314;  and  elsewhere. 

—5— 


characteristics:  1 — dumb  show,  with  incidental  music  de- 
scriptive of  the  action  to  come  or  of  that  in  progress;  2 — 
songs,  not  always  happily  introduced;  3 — situation,  and 
not  characterization,  the  mainspring  of  the  interest — here 
the  situation  provides  for  the  inevitable  struggle  between 
right  and  wrong  in  the  persons  of  the  sons  of  Romaldi  and 
Bonamo,  as  representatives  of  the  opinions  and  desires 
of  their  fathers;  4 — the  heroine,  Selina,  a  prize  over 
whom  the  conflict  in  the  play  is  waged;  5 — types,  rather 
than  real  men  and  women,  as  characters:  the  perse- 
cuted father  and  daughter,  victims  of  a  plot;  the  subtle, 
unscrupulous  villain;  the  champion  of  the  oppressed; 
the  true  friend  who,  at  the  proper  moment — and  there 
is  always  the  proper  moment  in  melodrama— makes 
the  necessary  explanations;  and  the  persons  who  pro- 
vide the  comic  relief;  6 — exaggerated  appeals  to  the 
emotions,  the  tearing  of  fine  passion  to  tatters;  7 — 
thrilling  moments — here  an  attempted  murder,  a  re- 
markable rescue  and  other  periods  of  suspense  and  sur- 
prise made  into  an  improbable  plot;  8 — spectacular  scenic 
effects — here,  a  thunder  storm  in  the  climactic  scene;  and 
9 — a  happy  ending. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  none  of  these 
qualities  were  new  to  the  English  stage.  Any  one  of  them 
may  easily  be  traced  back  to  earlier  forms  of  the  drama, 
and  often,  combinations  of  them  have  been  so  marked  in 
certain  plays  that  the  critics  of  the  older  drama  have  used 
the  terms  "melodrama"  and  "melodramatic"  to  set  them 
apart  from  the  more  dignified  comedy  and  tragedy.  These 
older  plays  may  have  been  called  in  their  day  tragedy,  tra- 
gi-comedy,  opera,  or  even  pantomime,  but,  in  the  minds  of 
the  critics,  general  exaggeration  and  lack  of  high  poetic 
passion  have  differentiated  them  from  the  typical  examples 
of  their  several  species.  These  plays,  nevertheless,  are 
not  really  melodramas  in  the  nineteenth  century  under- 

tanding  of  the  term,  but  since  the  term  is  often  used  to 
lesignate  them  and  other  plays,  it  is  necessary  to  point 

ut  briefly  the  various  ways  in  which  "melodrama"  and  its 

erived  adjective  have  been  employed. 

The  use  of  the  word  in  England  is  threefold;    or  per- 

ips  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  twofold,  for  two  of 

•e  uses  may,  for  the  purpose  o.f  classification,  be  grouped 

nder  one.      First,  we  have  the  original  sense  in  which  the 

::rm  was  used  when  it  came  into  the  language;    and  se- 


condly,  the  sense,  a  derived  one,  by  which  we  designate  two 
other  types  of  play:  the  popular  play  of  today,  and  a  pop- 
ular, exaggerated  type  of  tragedy  existant  before  the  open- 
ing of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  not  hard  to  conceive, 
therefore,  that  under  these  conditions,  it  is  possible  to  have 
at  least  three  types  of  play,  all  of  them  having  something 
in  common,  that  may  be  called  melodrama.  It  would  be, 
therefore,  as  unfair  to  assert  that  because  a  play  of  the  nine 
teenth  century  or  of  the  twentieth,  did  not  conform  to  the 
type  of  "The  Atheist's  Tragedy"  that  the  later  day  play  is 
not  a  melodrama,  as  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  affirm 
that  because  Dibdin's  'The  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  is  unlike 
Owen  Davis's  "Lighthouse  by  the  Sea,"  that  the  one  or  the 
other  is  not  a  melodrama.  Each  age  has  had  its  own  melo- 
drama, and  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  suggest  the 
development  of  this  type  of  dramatic  production  from  the 
old  form  to  the  type  that  approximates  the  type  in  use  at 
the  present  time,  for,  between  the  years  1800  and  1840, 
that  development  was  practically  completed,  although  the 
roots  of  the  form  may  be  found  farther  back  in  English 
dramatic  history.  * 

Part  of  the  difficulty  that  besets  this  subject  may  be 
obviated  by  setting  down  these  differences  in  usages  and 
by  attempting  to  arrive  at  some  statement  of  the  character- 
istics of  melodrama  as  the  term  is  employed  in  the  three 
senses  mentioned  above. 

The  use  of  the  terms  "melodrama"  and  "melodramatic" 
by  our  contemporary  critics  to  distinguish  a  certain  type 
of  play  existant  before  the  words  themselves  came  into 
the  language  is  fairly  well  determined  and  may  be  summed 
up  in  a  few  words.  An  excess  of  bombast,  terror,  horror, 
lust,  and  blood,  not  sufficiently  motivated,  in  the  minds  of 
critics,  sets  certain  plays  apart  definitely  from  pure 
tragedy  and  causes  them  to  be  called  melodramas.  Exam- 
ples that  are  most  frequently  mentioned  are  "Tamburlaine", 
"The  Jew  of  Malta", "TheSpanish Tragedy", "Titus  Andron- 
icus",  "Richard  the  Third",  The  Atheist's  Tragedy",  "Lust's 
Dominion",  "Antonio  and  Mellida",  together  with  many 
other  Elizabethan  and  Restoration  plays  ordinarily  named 
tragedies.  (See  Baker,  G.  P.,  "Development  of  Shakes- 
peare as  Dramatist",  p.  133;  Brooke,  Tucker,  "The  Tu- 


*As  the  characteristics  of  the  type  became  fixed,  so  did  the 
name  that  was  applied  to  it.  After  1802,  the  spellings  of  the  word 
were  successively,  melo-drame,  melo-drama,  and  melodrama. 

—7— 


dor  Drama",  p.  210;  Hastings,  Charles,  "The  Theatre; 
Its  development  in  France  and  England",  p.  210;  Schelling, 
F.  E.,  "The  Elizabethan  Drama",  I:pp.  449,  549,  563,  and 
II  :p.  182;  Thorndike,  A.,  "Tragedy",  pp.  3,  4,  152,  124,  148, 
149  in  passim  and  elsewhere.) 

In  the  case  of  present  day  plays  there  is  not  so  much 
uniformity  of  opinion.  In  general^  the  term  is  taken  to 
refer  to  what  may  be  called  "popular  tragedy",  although 
in  many  cases,  no  tragedy  results  from  the  action  of  the 
play.  Although  the  play  may  have  tragic  parts  and  un- 
important characters  may  be  killed,  very  often,  it  is  a  play 
of  only  "near-killings",  of  dire  distresses,  of  hazardous 
situations,  of  thrilling  rescues,  of  theatrical  and  sensa- 
tional clap-trap,  of  suspense  and  surprise;  and,  at  the  end 
of  two,  three,  or  four  acts,  the  typically  virtuous  hero 
is  united  to  the  typically  oppressed,  but  equally  virtu- 
ous heroine,  and  the  villain  is  driven  off  the  stage  in 
disgrace,  or  is  allowed  to  remain,  either  reformed  and 
repentant,  or  gnashing  his  teeth  and  swearing  future 
vengeance.  Throughout  all,  there  is  a  liberal  use  of  me- 
chanical and  electrical  effects  that  run  the  gamut  from  a 
representation  of  a  thunder  shower  with  real  rain  to  a 
train  wreck,  a  burning  steamboat,  or  an  automobile  acci- 
dent, and  heroes  and  heroines  are  rescued  in  the  "nick  of 
time"  from  burning  buildings  or  pulled  from  the  very  teeth 
of  huge  circular  saws  in  real  log-sawing  machines,  while 
/illains  are  strapped  to  switchboards  and  light  through 
their  bodies  the  great  white  ways  of  cities.  This  is  the 
so-called  popular  melodrama  written  by  modern  play- 
wrights like  Owen  Davis,  who,  according  to  his  own  state- 
ment, prepares  such  plays  "largely  by  rule",  the  formula 
jonsisting  of  a  sensational  title,  and  a  group  of  types  of 
character,  put  together  after  the  following  method: 

"ACT    I.— Start    the    trouble. 

ACT  II. — Here  things  look  bad.  The  lady  having  left  home, 
is  quite  at  the  mercy  of  the  Villain. 

ACT  III. — The  lady  is  saved  by  the  help  of  the  Stage  Carpen- 
ter. (The  big  scenic  and  mechanical  effects  were 
always  in  Act  III.) 

ACT  IV. — The  lovers  are  united  and  the  villains  are  punished". 

From  such  extremes  these  plays  go  to  another  in  which 

':ere  is  as  little  appeal  to  the  logical  faculties;    and  in 

which,  although  there  is  not  the  same  violence  of  situation 

:  nd  language,  not  the  same  definite  types  of  character,  not 


the  same  play  of  suspense  and  surprise,  there  is  the  same 
violence  to  probability.  In  this  variety,  emphasis  is  placed 
on  the  happy  ending  regardless  of  character  elements 
or  conditions.  For  this  reason,  reconciling  plays  such  as 
'The  Great  Divide",  "The  Profligate",  and  "Saints  and  Sin- 
ners" and  the  like  have  been  called  by  some,  "melodramas" 
in  that  they  are  illogical  tragedies,  the  catastrophe  which 
we  would  naturally  expect  being  averted  by  some  special 
Providence,  acting  for  the  occasion  only. 

As  a  result  of  these  differences,  we  find  a  variety  of 
definitions  among  modern  critics.  Mr.  William  Archer 
and  Mr.  Henry  Arthur  Jones  characterize  melodrama  as 
illogical  tragedy;  Mr.  William  Butler  Yeats  believes  that 
melodrama  is  tragedy  with  the  passion  left  out;  Professor 
Brander  Matthews  and  Mr.  Clayton  Hamilton  believe,  in 
general,  that  it  is  a  play  in  which  situation  and  not  char- 
acter is  the  determining  force,  a  play  in  which,  like  the 
older  romance,  you  remember  the  story  and  the  incidents 
rather  than  the  characters.  Professor  G.  P.  Baker,  in  a 
lecture  delivered  in  Philadelphia  in  the  winter  of  1912-13, 
laid  stress  on  the  feature  of  exaggeration  that  is  the  part 
of  most  melodramas,  and  added,  with  much  justice,  that, 
in  presentation,  almost  any  play  in  the  hands  of  a  partic- 
ular style  of  actor  may  degenerate  into  melodrama.  *  All 
of  these  opinions  express  partial  truths.  Melodrama  is 
illogical  at  times  as,  for  example,  Almar's  dramatization  of 
"Oliver  Twist",  Milner's  "Mazeppa"  and  the  operatic 
"Faust".  But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  such  a  play  as  "The 
Corsican  Brothers",  apart  from  the  supernatural  element 
it  contains,  which  psychic  investigators  will  assure  us  is  en- 
tirely probable,  the  drama  is  perfectly  logical.  That  melo- 
drama may  not  be  all  situation  appears  in  the  case  of  a 
play  like  "The  Bells",  which  might  be  called  a  psychological 
melodrama,  and  which,  in  the  hands  of  such  actors  as  the 
late  Sir  Henry  Irving,  may  be  exceedingly  effective,  and 
in  the  hands  of  lesser  men,  pure  rant. 

In  reality,  no  one  form  of  melodrama  exists  today,  and 
since  the  form  varies  greatly,  practically  no  brief  exposi- 
tion nor  one-line  definition  of  present  day  melodrama  will 
entirely  satisfy.  A  fair  definition  would  include  many 

*  S'ince  this  statement  was  written,  Professor  Baker's  "Dram- 
atic Technique"  has  appeared.  In  it,  he  stresses  the  lack  of 
characterization  found  in  melodrama  as  that  which  divides  it  from 
tragedy,  or  at  least  from  what  h-e  calls  the  "story  play". 


characteristics,  not  all  of  which  might  be  found  in  any  one 
play.  The  definition  might  with  truth  state  that  either 
singly  or  in  combination,  the  following  elements  are  to  be 
found  in  melodrama:  terror,  horror,  illogical  ending,  sup- 
ernatural elements,  chance  and  accident  as  preventing  the 
working  out  of  that  seldom-found  poetic  justice,  excep- 
tional scenery  and  stage  devices,  appeal  to  the  emotion 
rather  than  to  the  intellect,  a  struggle  invariably  between 
vice  and  virtue,  a  visual  representation  of  everything  that 
is  of  importance, — real  melodrama,  for  example,  would 
show  the  murder  of  Duncan  by  Macbeth — generally  a  play 
of  types  that  are  usually  exaggerated  and  sometimes  even 
caricatured,  little  or  no  growth  of  character,  sudden  twists 
and  turns  in  personality  without  much  apparent  reason,  a 
play  usually  with  "moral"  written  large  upon  it,  a  play 
full  of  exciting  incidents, — a  "thriller"  is  the  common  des- 
ignation,— a  play  that  may  be  said  "to  persuade  rather  than 
convince".  In  addition,  the  method  of  speech  is  much 
strained.  The  characters  often  use  grandiloquent  phrases 
and  give  voice  to  sentiments  not  in  keeping  with  their  per- 
sonalities. The  musical  element  in  the  later  melodrama 
does  not  occupy  so  important  a  place  as  formerly,  although 
we  still  find  tremuld  music  on  the  violins  as  the  villain  ap- 
pears or  in  places  where  the  situation  rises  to  more  than 
ordinary  height.  The  songs  for  the  most  part  have  dis- 
appeared and  have  been  reserved  for  opera  which  is  largely 
melodramatic  and  often  very  closely  akin  to  the  type  under 
discussion. 

Turning  now  to  melodrama  as  we  find  it  on  its  intro- 
duction into  England,  we  discover,  for  the  most  part,  little 
more  than  drama  plus  music,  and  this  general  character- 
istic is  maintained  in  the  minor  theatres,  practically  to  the 
time  (1843)  the  reign  of  the  patent  theatres  came  to  an 
end.  But  little  by  little  this  simple  accompaniment  of 
drama  was  developed  by  the  addition  of  the  features  al- 
ready noted,  until  it  became  substantially  the  kind  of  play 
that  we  now  designate  by  that  name.  In  earlier  times, 
plays  at  the  minor  houses  were  sometimes  converted  into 
melodrama  in  the  earlier  sense  of  the  word  by  the  simple 
device  of  adding  to  the  action,  musical  accompaniment  and 
a  little  dumb  show,  and  this  device  was  even  employed  at 
times  as  a  means  of  appropriating  dramas,  regarded  as  the 
sole  property  of  the  patent  houses.  Thus,  for  example, 
Home's  "Douglas"  was  transformed  in  1819  into  a  melo- 

—10— 


drama  at  the  Surrey  by  Dibdin.  "Mrs.  Egerton  performed 
Young  Norval  in  "Douglas",  which  tragedy,  without  omit- 
ting a  single  line  of  the  author,  made  a  very  splendid  melo- 
drama, with  the  addition  of  Lord  Randolph's  magnificent 
banquet,  a  martial  Scotch  dance,  and  a  glee  formed  from 
the  words, 

"Free  is  the  heart  who  for  his  country  fights,"  etc.,  etc., 

exquisitely  set  by  Sanderson  and  delightfully  sung,  to- 
gether with  an  expensive  processional  representation 
of  the  landing  of  the  Danes".  (Dibdin,  "Reminis- 
cences" II:  p.  170).  Jephson's  "Count  of  Narbonne" 
was  converted  by  the  same  hand  into  "The  Prophecy; 
or,  Giant  Spectre,"  in  1819,  as  was  Mrs.  Opie's  tale, 
"The  Ruffian  Boy".  "Ivanhoe"  suffered  a  similar 
transformation,  and  in  1821,  Dibdin  announced  a 
"new  melodrama  founded  on  Lord  Byron's  recent 
play  of  "Marino  Faliero,  Doge  of  Venice",  (Dibdin, 
ibid.  pp.  199-200).  This  latter  attempt  was  frustrated 
by  an  injunction  taken  out  by  Elliston  who  was  then  man- 
ager of  the  patent  theatres.  * 

As  we  examine  these  early  products  of  melodramatic 
art,  we  notice,  in  addition  to  the  characteristics  already 
mentioned,  a  tendency  to  lay  greater  stress  on  situation 
than  on  character,  together  with  a  corresponding  exaggera- 
tion intended  to  heighten  the  effect.  Then  we  find  the  un- 
natural replacing  the  natural,  and  an  attempt  to  create  in- 
terest by  some  departure  from  the  normal  moral,  natural, 
or  national  law.  This  characteristic  seems  to  be  the  only 
real  test  that  can  be  applied  for  determining  what  is  and 
what  is  not  melodrama.  The  grandiloquence  of  the  hero 
in  the  situation  in  which  he  is  placed  is,  in  most  cases,  un- 
natural; the  sentimental  glossing  over  of  crime  is  contrary 
to  human  nature;  the  manner  in  which  the  denouement 
is  effected  is  generally  contrary  to  the  probabilities  of  the 
case;  and  the  acting  is  not  in  keeping  with  the  characters. 
In  fact,  melodrama  depends  for  its  success  on  the  granting 


*  In  much  the  same  way,  the  "minors"  entirely  misused  the 
term  "burletta",  covering  up  by  it  the  introduction  of  purely 
legitimate  performances  on  their  stages.  Dibdin  gives  a  list  of 
plays  that  he  marks,  "Misnamed  Burlettas  accoring  to  act  of 
Parliament",  (Dibdin,  ibid.  II:  p.  343)  and  in  the  list  are  to  be 
found  "Tom  Jones",  "Roderick  *  Random",  and  a  number  of  dra- 
matizations of  Scott. 

—11— 


in  advance  of  certain  conventionalities.  It  demands  that  its 
audience  shall  put  "possible"  before  "probable".  It  de- 
mands that  its  audience  grant  that  accidents  are  likely  to 
happen  and  that  almost  invariably  these  accidents  work 
in  favor  of  the  virtuous  and  to  the  detriment  of  the  vile. 
In  other  words,  melodrama  rests  on  an  entirely  different 
basis  from  that  upon  which  tragedy  and  comedy  rest.  In 
these  forms  the  appeal  is  supposed  to  be  mental;  in  melo- 
drama, the  appeal  is,  on  the  whole,  emotional.  It  is  meant 
to  attract  for  the  time  only.  It  is  designed  to  reach  its 
mark  by  hard  blows  rather  than  by  subtle  reasoning.  It 
employs  the  methods  of  the  mob  orator,  and  of  the  ordi- 
nary type  of  evangelist. 

Melodrama,  though  it  falls  below  the  level  of  literature 
in  most  of  its  examples,  is  so  prevalent  that  some  consid- 
eration of  it  is  justified.  It  has  appealed  to  so  many  peo- 
ple that  we  are  bound  to  give  it  a  place.  It  deals  with 
certain  problems  of  human  kind  in  a  way  that  attracts  the 
type  of  man  who  can  be  attracted  by  no  other  means.  The 
psychology  of  it  all,  were  it  possible  to  treat  it  fully,  would 
be  most  interesting.  A  study  of  the  audiences  who  fre- 
quent the  theatres  where  melodrama  is  produced  would  be- 
tray the  bases  on  which  melodrama  is  built.  These  aud- 
iences show  a  woeful  ignorance  of  the  ways  of  life;  a  faith 
in  the  special  intervention  of  Providence  to  protect  the  in- 
nocent and  to  avenge  wicked  deeds;  and  a  certain  crude 
romantic  temper  which  delights  in  the  unusual  and  finds 
solace  in  departure  from  the  every-day  commonplace. 
Such  an  audience  would  sleep  soundly  through  a  play 
where,  by  subtle  touches,  and  dignified  rhetoric,  worthy 
morals  were  taught,  but  it  would  go  away  profoundly  im- 
pressed by  a  moral  taught  by  a  "blood  and  thunder"  ven- 
geance. The  melodrama,  then,  deserves  no  condemnation 
if,  in  its  crude  way,  it  often  provides  that  "purge"  which 
Aristotle  demanded  of  tragedy. 


-12— 


CHAPTER  II 

The  eighteenth  century  witnessed  the  rise  of  two  kinds 
of  plays  that  contained  elements  which  later  were  integral 
parts  of  melodrama:  the  sentimental  play  and  the  romantic 
play.  The  former,  in  the  tragedies  of  Lillo  and  those  that 
came  after  him,  and  the  latter,  in  Walpole  and  his  follow- 
ers, had  great  vogue  in  the  closing  years  of  the  century, 
and  were  soon  incorporated  in  what  was  known  as  the  Ger- 
man Romantic  Movement.  Both  the  sentimental  play  and 
the  romantic  play  preceded  the  German  movement;  both 
of  them  influenced  it,  so  that  Coleridge's  criticism  that 
"The  so-called  German  drama,  therefore,  is  English  in  its 
origin  ,  English  in  its  materials,  and  English  by  readoption, 

a  lack-grace  returned  from  transportation  with  such 

improvements  only  in  growth  and  manner  as  young  tran- 
sported convicts  usually  come  home  with",  (Biographia 
Literaria,  II:  p.  650  seq.)  is  literally  true.  ' 

Just  now  we  are  primarily  concerned  with  the  romantic 
manifestation  as  it  snowed  itself  in  the  plays  of  terror,  hor- 
ror, and  mystery.  This  chapter  will  consider,  therefore, 
the  plays  which  appeared  between  1764  and  1800,  that  were 
either  steps  toward  nineteenth  century  melodrama  or  melo- 
dramas in  fact. 

It  was  in  the  year  1764,  that  Horace  Walpole  published  ' 
his  romance,  "The  Castle  of  Otranto",  and  started  that  * 
vogue  for  things  mysterious  in  England,  for  Gothic  castles  • 
and   supernatural   happenings,   that  was   soon    copied   by 
Clara  Reeve,  by  William  Beckford,  by  Anne  Radcliffe,  and  • 
later  by  Matthew  Gregory  Lewis  and  others.       It  is  also* 
to  be  remembered  that,  in  1768,  Walpole  published  a  melo- 
dramatic tragedy,  which  he  meant  to  be  horrible,  under  the 
title  of  "The  Mysterious  Mother",  and  that  in   1781,  the 
same  year  as  "Die  Rauber",  Jephson  dramatized  "The  Cas- 
tle of  Otranto"  as  "The  Count  of  Narbonne",  a  successful 
melodrama,  although  it  was  called  a  tragedy. 

"The  Count  of  Narbonne"  in  everything  but  name  is  a  a 
melodrama,  as  the  word  came  to  be  understood  later.  It 
is  similar  in  its  form  and  method  to  such  plays  as  "Adel- 
githa",  and  "Bertram",  and  "Venoni",  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  It  concerns  Raymond,  Count  of  Narbonne,  and 
his  desire  to  keep  certain  lands  and  estates  in  the  family 
by  divorcing  his  wife  and  marrying  Godfrey's  daughter, 
Isabel,  who  has  been  betrothed  to  his  own  son.  In  a  fit  of 
jealousy,  because  he  thinks  that  Isabel  does  not  requite 

—13— 


his  passion,  he  rushs  into  the  sanctuary  of  St.  Nicholas  and, 
mistaking  his  daughter  Adelaide  for  Isabel,  stabs  her. 
Discovering  his  error,  he  kills  himself  in  remorse.  Ex- 
cept for  the  songs  and  the  definite  musical  directions,  this 
is  a  very  melodrama,  from  its  improbability  and  horror  to 
its  inflated  speeches  and  its  lust  and  bloodshed.  Inasmuch 
as  songs  soon  became  a  negligible  quantity  in  melodrama, 
and  because  we  are  led  to  believe  that  musical  accompani- 
ment was  not  wanting  in  the  interest  of  intensifying  situa- 
tions even  at  this  date,  we  may  put  this  play  down  as  one 
,  of  the  earliest  examples  of  what  we  call  nineteenth  century 
'jpielodrama.  (See  preface  to  "The  Lord  of  the  Manor"  by 
General  John  Burgoyne,  regarding  the  use  of  music  in 
plays,  (1781)). 

Burgoyne,  in  the  preface  mentioned,  went  to  some 
length  to  show  how  music  had  been  used  for  the  purpose  of 
emphasizing  situations  in  scenes  on  the  stage.  He  also 
explained  the  manner  in  which  the  term  opera  was,  at  that 
time,  being  used  in  France,  and  even  adapted  several  of 
these  operas  to  the  English  stage.  At  this  time,  the  terms 
opera  and  melodrama  were  almost  synonomous  in  France, 
(See  preface)  and  so,  we  are  not  stretching  the  term  too 
far  if  we  apply  to  these  plays  the  name  that  rightfully  be- 
longs to  them,  especially  when  the  several  elements  of 
which  they  are  composed  agree  so  thoroughly  with  the 
form  we  have  come  to  associate  with  the  name  'melodrama.' 

In  1786,  Burgoyne  adapted  Sedaine's  "Richard  Coeur 
de  Lion",  an  opera,  giving  it  the  same  title.  On  the  title 
page  of  the  English  edition  the  play  is  called  "an  historical 
romance",  but  by  Kelly,  it  is  said  to  be  an  opera,  (Kelly, 
"Memoirs",  I:  p.  290.)  and  Genest  merely  says  the  "piece 
is  musical".  The  play,  which  tells  of  the  rescue  of  Rich- 
ard, has  musical  accompaniment  for  the  action,  deals  with 
the  most  improbable  conditions,  is  exceedingly  romantic, 
and  exhibits  types  for  characters.  The  elements  of  horror 
and  terror  later  looked  upon  as  almost  necessary  for  the 
melodrama  are  missing,  but,  without  doubt,  this  is-  an  ex- 
ample of  the  plays  that  in  the  French  acceptation  of  the 
term  fulfilled  the  requirements  of  the  word  "melodrama". ' 

Another  French  piece,  "Gallic  Gratitude;  or,  the 
Frenchman  in  India",  adapted  by  J.  S.  Dodd,  in  1779,  is, 
in  its  principal  situation,  very  melodramatic  and  strikingly 
similar  to  "The  Widow  of  Malabar",  of  1790,  also  a  French 
play.  Both  of  them  are  concerned  with  the  rescue  by  a 

—14 


French  officer,  of  a  widow  condemned  to  die,  according  to 
the  Eastern  custom,  on  account  of  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band. 

These  melodramatic  productions  from  the  continent 
would  seem  to  bear  out  the  contention  made  by  some 
that  the  earliest  examples  came  into  England  from  Europe, 
were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  elder  Colman,  as  early  as 
1761,  in  "Reflections  on  the  Old  Dramatic  Writers,  Ad- 
dressed to  Garrick",  said,  'The  old  plays  are  many  of  them 
a  kind  of  heterogeneous  composition,  few  of  them  being 
strictly  Tragedy,  Comedy,  or  even  Tragi-Comedy,  but  ra- 
ther an  undigested  jumble  of  every  species  thrown  togeth- 
er", which,  "the  playbills,  I  have  observed  cautiously  style 
****  plays."  (Quoted  by  Genest,  IV:  p.  121.)  So  that 
the  "jumble"  afterwards  so  strongly  condemned  and  ap- 
plied to  what  we  now  term  melodrama,  was  no  new  thing 
as  early  as  1761,  some  years  before  these  melodramatic  pro- 
ductions began  to  come  over  from  the  continent  under  the 
designation  of  opera,  melo-drame,  or  musical  pieces. 

It  remained  for  the  son  of  the  writer  of  the  words  just 
quoted  to  feel  the  earliest  shafts  of  Genest  at  the  "jumble 
of  Tragedy,  Comedy,  and  Opera",  (Genest,  IV:  p.  569.)  for 
in  these  words  "The  Battle  of  Hexham",  (published,  1800 
as  a  Musical  Drama)  was  characterized  when  it  was 
brought  out  at  the  Haymarket  on  August  11,  1789.  Col- 
man calls  it  his  "first  attempt  at  that  mixed  kind  of  dra- 
ma", ("Memoirs"  of  the  Colman  Family,  II:  p.  202.)  and 
the  "mixed  kind  of  drama"  was  only  another  name  given 
at  this  time  for  melodrama,  which  word,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  not  yet  come  into  use  in  England.*  The  play  verges 
on  tragedy,  but  is  really  melodrama.  It  tells  the  story 
of  Adeline  in  search  of  her  husband.  He  turns  out  to  be 
not  only  a  leader  of  a  band  of  robbers,  but  also  the  res- 
cuer of  Queen  Margaret  after  the  battle  of  Hexham.  The 
play  copies  the  old  chronicle  play  in  subject  matter,  but 
adds  a  great  deal  of  music  and  songs.  With  truthfulness, 
we  are  informed  that  although  "the  language  is  unnat- 


*  Professor  Thorndike,  in  his  scholarly  volume,  entitled 
"Tragedy"  p.  334,  seems  to  distinguish  melodrama  from  the  type 
of  play  written  by  Colman,  the  younger,  because  the  former  con- 
tained more  dumb  play  than  the  latter.  Dumb  play,  even  in  ex- 
cess, howeVer,  is  scarcely  the  distinguishing  feature  of  melodrama. 
It  rather  seems  that  Colman's  plays  are  melodramas,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  sense,  in  everything  but  name — the  name  is  lacking 
because  it  had  not  yet  come  into  the  language. 

—15— 


ural....the  success. ..  ..of  the  Battle  of  Hexham. ..  .en- 
couraged Colman  and  others  to  persist  in  this  despicable 
species  of  the  Drama,  in  defiance  of  nature  and  common 
sense".  (Genest,  as  above  referred  to.) 

The  season  of  1791,  at  the  Haymarket,  brought  out 
"The  Kentish  Barons",  by  Francis  North,  called  an  opera; 
another  "jumble"  by  Colman,  the  younger,  called  "The 
Surrender  of  Calais",  and  designated  simply  "a  play";  and 
two  other  pieces  equally  as  melodramatic  as  these,  en- 
titled "Lorenzo"  by  Robert  Merry,  and  "Earl  Goodwin"  by 
Anne  Yearsley. 

The  year  1791  saw  the  production  of  Mrs.  Hannah  Cow- 
ley's  play,  "A  Day  in  Turkey;  or,  the  Russian  Slaves", 
which,  although  of  little  intrinsic  importance  as  a  play, 
is  exceedingly  important  on  account  of  the  things  that  were 
said  about  it,  for  these  remarks  furnish  us  with  a  fairly 
good  standard  for  judging  not  only  what  preceded  but 
also  what  followed  in  melodrama.  Mrs.  Cowley  called 
the  play  "a  Comedy,  interspersed  with  songs",  and  Boaden 
remarks  that  it  "should  clearly  have  been  an  opera".  (Boa- 
den,  "Life  of  Kemble",  II:  p.  54.)  The  editor  of  Mrs. 
Cowley's  works  calls  it  the  author's  only  excursion  into 
the  realms  of  mixed  drama,  and  a  remark  in  the  "Journal 
de  Theatre",  for  December  31,  1791,  when,  as  Dr.  Mason 
remarks,  the  word  "melodrama"  was  just  beginning  to  be 
used  in  the  popular  sense  in  France,  binds  together  in 
the  same  group,  the  "jumble  of  Tragedy,  Comedy,  and  Op- 
era", which  Genest  complained  of,  the  opera, the  "mixed 
drama",  and  the  "melodrama".  "Cette  piece  est  de  Mad- 
ame Crowley.  Ce  n'est  point  une  comedie,  ce  n'est  un 
opera;  c'est  ce  que  nous  appelons  un  melo-drame".  (Quo- 
ted from  Mason,  "Melodrama  in  France",  p.  35.) 

In  the  next  season,  Thomas  Morton  brought  out  his 
historical  play,  "Columbus",  a  melodramatic  production 
in  which  the  Columbus  story  was  mixed  up  with  the  Cora 
and  Alonzo  story  which  forms  the  basis  of  Kotzebue's 
"Virgin  of  the  Sun". 

In  the  year  1793,  came  a  number  of  melodramatic 
plays.  In  January,  Mrs.  Inchbald's  "Everyone  Has  His 
Fault"  was  put  on  at  Covent  Garden  and  was  called  a  tra- 
gicomedy. In  it,  false  sentiment  and  improbability 
made  popular  by  the  interest  then  beginning  in  the  Ger- 
man drama,  were  carried  to  the  utmost.  In  February, 
James  Boaden's  musical  romance,  "Osmyn  and  Daraza" 

—16— 


was  produced  and  in  August  came  Colman's  "mixed  dra- 
ma", "The  Mountaineers",  borrowed  partly  from  "Don 
Quixote".  In  the  introduction  to  "The  Mountaineers" 
(published  by  John  Douglas,  New  York,  no  date)  is  the 
statement  that  "This  drama  is  among  the  first  of  those 
hybrid  productions  of  the  stage,  which,  combining  tragedy 
and  comedy,  with  operatic  embellishments,  still  retain  their 
hold  upon  modern  audiences,  with  undiminished  attrac- 
tion". (Later  on  in  the  same  introduction  is  the  sentence, 
"Kean,  also,  acquired  some  degree  of  celebrity  in  Octavian, 
one  of  the  characters,  but  it  was  too  melodramatic  in  its 
style".)  The  play  has  the  "near-tragedy",  the  comedy,  the 
song  of  melodrama;  it  has  the  rant,  the  exaggeration,  the 
suspense,  and  the  surprise;  it  has  the  happy  ending,  with 
but  little  reason  for  it;  it  has  grand  choruses  at  the  ends 
of  the  acts,  types  of  characters,  attempts  at  scenic  splen- 
dor, and  yet  it  is  called  simply  "a  play". 

There  were  also  in  this  year,  "Children  in  the  Wood", 
by  Thomas  Morton  from  the  old  nursery  tale,  and  "Prodi- 
gal", by  Francis  G.  Waldron,  both  of  them  melodramatic. 
The  latter  play  was  based  on  Aaron  Hill's  "Fatal  Extrava- 
gance", but,  following  the  demand  for  happy  endings,  Wal- 
dron altered  the  ending  of  the  play  and  weakened  it  ac- 
cordingly. 

"Lodoiska"  was  translated  from  the  French  by  John 
Phillip  Kemble  and  produced  in  1794.  This  play  also  is, 
strictly  speaking,  a  melodrama.  Genest  calls  the  play  a 
"musical  romance";  the  1794  edition  of  the  play  is  mark- 
ed an  "opera";  and  the  edition  published  in  the  collection 
of  plays  of  1811  entitled  "The  London  Stage",  is  desig- 
nated a  "melodramatic  opera".  Here,  then,  is  another  ex- 
ample of  the  inability  that  was  being  experienced  to  name 
this  hybrid  species. 

In  this  play  are  improbability,  bombast,  striking  situa- 
tions, thrills,  types  of  .character,  and  music.  Here  are  the 
worthy  young  lover,  the  proud  father,  the  designing  tyrant, 
the  persecuted  maiden,  the  faithful  servant  who  provides 
the  comic  relief,  the  brave  friend  who  succeeds  in  con- 
founding the  villain,  etc.  Notice  the  following  stage  di- 
rections, as  showing  the  scenic  effects,  the  music,  the  pan- 
tomimic action  for  the  entire  scene: 

"(Shouts,  drums,  trumpets,  and  cannon,  as  the  engagement 
commences  between  the  Polanders  and  the  Tartars,  horse  and 
foot;  the  Tartars,  having  storm-ed  the  castle,  which  they  fire  in 
various  places,  the  battlements  and  towers  fall  in  the  midst  of 

—17 


loud  explosions.  Lupauski  and  Lodoiska  are  discovered  in  a  blaz- 
ing tower;  Florenski  rushes  through  the  flames  and  rescues 
them.  During  the  action  Lovinski  and  Kera  Khan  meet  hand  to 
hand  and  after  a  desperate  conflict,  the  Baron  is  killed.  The  Tar- 
tars are  victorious;  Lupauski  unites  the  hands  of  Florenski  and 
Lodoiska.  Loud  shouts  of  victory  and  the  curtain  falls.)*" 

Of  such  stuff  melodramas  are  made. 

"The  Sicilian  Romance",  by  Mrs.  Radcliffe  was  drama- 
tized by  Henry  Siddons  in  1794,  as  was  the  ballad  of  "Auld 
Robin  Gray",  written  shortly  before  that  time  by  Lady  Ann 
Banard.  Arnold,  who  wrote  the  latter  play,  made  it  end 
happily  by  having  Jamie  return,  rich  and  faithful,  before 
Jeanie's  marriage  to  old  Robin.  James  Boaden  adapted 
Mrs.  Radcliffe's  "The  Romance  of  the  Forest",  into  "Foun- 
tainville  Forest",  a  melodrama  in  which  the  ghost  was  made 
to  appear  behind  a  "blueish-grey  gauze,  so  as  to  remove 
the  too  corporeal  effect  of  a  "live-actor",  and  convert  the 
moving  substance  into  a  gliding  essence".  (Boaden,  Life 
of  Kemble"  II:  p.  117.). 

The  next  few  years  saw  a  number  of  productions,  but 
since  they  add  nothing  new,  we  may  pass  them  rapidly  by 
with  a  mere  mention.  Some  of  them  were  Cobb's  "Cher- 
okee", an  opera  on  an  American  theme;  Miles  Peter  An- 
drews' "Mysteries  of  the  Castle",  suggested  by  "Udolpho"; 
Boaden 's  "The  Secret  Tribunal";  Morton's  "Zorinski"; 
and  others. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  German  element  increased 
in  volume  in  England  and  though  its  bandits,  terrors  and 
horrors  had  been  anticipated  by  Walpole  and  his  followers, 
"the  lackgrace  returned  home  from  transportation"  with 
its  improvements  completely  overwhelmed  the  native  pro- 
ductions. (See  Beers'  "A  History  of  English  Romanti- 
cism in  the  Eighteenth  Century",  p.  401.) 

Among  these  plays,  some  of  the  most  popular  were  M; 
G.  Lewis'  "The  Castle  Spectre",  (1797),  that  ran  for  sixty 
nights  the  first  season;  and  three  plays  founded  on  Eng- 
lish romances,  namely,  "The  Iron  Chest",  by  Colman, 
founded  on  William  Godwin's  "Caleb  Williams";  Boaden's 
"Italian  Monk",  and  his  "Aurelio  and  Miranda",  founded 
respectively  on  Mrs.  Radcliffe's  Inquisition  story  of  the 
same  name  and  on  M.  G.  Lewis'  "The  Romance  of  the 
Monk".  All  of  these  writers  took  the  English  terror  and 
mystery  stories  and  exaggerated  their  characteristics  after 
the  German  fashion. 

Immediately,  these  plays  were  satirized  by  Canning 
and  his  friends  in  "The  Rovers",  (1798)  but  without  ef- 

—18— 


I 


feet,  for  tlie  plays  continued  to  be  popular.  In  1799,  came  an 
alteration  with  comic  characters  and  some  songs,  of  Schil- 
ler's "Die  Rauber",  by  Joseph  G.  Holman,  under  the  title 
of  "The  Red  Cross  Knights",  and  in  1800  was  produced 
Charles  Kemble's  "The  Point  of  Honour",  taken  from  "Le 
Deserteur",  cf  Mercier  who,  it  is  reported  took  the  play 
originally  from  the  German.  (Memoirs  of  the  Colman  Fam- 
ily", II:  p.  285.) 

At  the  same  time  that  these  products  were  being  pre- 
sented, many  more  examples  of  pantomime  and  opera,  as 
well  as  of  melodrama,  were  being  brought  out  at  the  large 
houses  becauss  the  theatres,  says  Colman,  (ibid.  II,  p.  413.) 
being  too  large  "for  the  perfect  convenience  of  vision,  and 
for  an  easy  modulation  of  speech;  too  large  to  'hold  the 
mirror  up  to  nature',  so  as  to  give  a  full  and  just  reflection 
of  her  delicate  features  and  proportions;.  .  .  .theatrical  pro- 
prietors seem  to  be  of  this  opinion,  by  going  of  late  more 
into  spectacle,  melodrama,  and  opera  which  may  be  better 
seen  and  heard  at  a  distance,  than  those  representations 
which  have  been  quaintly  termed  the  Legitimate  Drama". 

Colman,  himself,  to  keep  up  with  the  demands  of  the 
time,  brought  out  three  spectacular  pieces  of  a  melodram- 
atic sort.  The  first  was  "Blue  Beard",  (1796)  with  its 
thrills,  its  fustian,  and  its  beautiful  scenery  and  pageants; 
the  second  was  "Feudal  Times;  or,  The  Banquet  Gallery"; 
(1799)  and  the  third,  "The  Forty  Thieves",  (1799).  In 
the  first  production  of  "Blue  Beard",  horses  and  elephants 
of  pasteboard  were  used,  (Kelley,  "Reminiscences"  II:  pp. 
146  seq.)  and  in  "Feudal  Times",  a  mine  was  sprung  at 
the  end  of  the  play  as  in  the  last  act  of  "Lodoiska".  This 
latter  effect  persisted  throughout  the  nineteenth  century 
and  always  was  successful  as  a  scenic  display. 

In  1800,  Colman  brought  out  at  his  theatre,  the  Hay- 
market,  another  pantomimical  drama,  called  "Obi;  or, 
Three-fingered  Jack,  the  Maimed  Hero",  (also  revived  at 
Drury  Lane  in  1818).  Boaden's  remarks  are  delightful 
about  this  piece.  He  says: 

"On  the  second  of  July,  the  pantomimical  drama  of  Obi,  or 
Three-fingered  Jack,  the  Maimed  Hero,  Proh  pudor!  by  that  ele- 
gant actor,  Charles  Kemble,  was  performed  before  a  most  crowded, 
brilliant,  and  judicious  audience.  The  additions  thus  made  to  the 
vulgar  tongue  w^re  of  great  value.  We  became  acquainted  with 
the  Obi  woman,  with  Tuckey,  and  Jenkannoo,  Juashee  and 
Quashee's  wife;  and  the  region  of  Foote  and  the  Colman's  was 
shifted  into  that  of  Sadler's  Wells,  or  Astley's,  or  the  Circus." 
Boaden,  "Life  of  Kemble"  II: p.  269.  Cf.  also  Colman,  11:284. 

—19— 


From  matters  such  as  these  we  now  turn  to  the  plays 
of  Augustus  von  Kotzetue,  a  literary  adventurer,  as  well 
as  a  master  of  stagecraft  and  theatric  effect.  In  1799,  no 
less  than  seventy  editions  or  versions  of  his  many  works 
were  published  in  England  alone.  Among  the  many  trans- 
lators of  his  plays  were  Benjamin  Thompson,  whose  ver- 
sion of  "The  Stranger"  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  be 
produced;  George  Papendick,  Robert  Herren,  Maria  Geis- 
weiler,  Anne  Plumptre,  Rev.  Matthew  West,  H.  Neuman, 
Mrs.  Inchbald,  Richard  Cumberland,  and  Richard  Brinsley 
Sheridan,  in  England;  and  among  others,  William  Dunlap 
and  Charles  Smith  in  America. 

Kotzebue's  plays  which  are  based  on  sentimentality  and 
a  false  standard  of  morals  are  essentially  melodramas 
in  the  sense  that  they  are  improbable  and  untrue  to  nature. 
Many  of  them  come  into  the  class  of  what  might  be  called 
domestic  drama.  They  are  serious  plays  that,  by  making 
use  of  an  undue  amount  of  sentimentality  or,  by  relying  on 
some  trick,  change  a  tragic  catastrophe  to  a  happy  ending. 
Notice  first  of  all  "The  Stranger".  The  basic  idea  of  this 
play  is  much  the  same  as  the  basic  idea  of  Hay  wood's  "A 
Woman  Killed  with  Kindness".  The -situation  that  is 
worked  out  from  this  fundamental  problem  is  by  no  means 
the  same,  however.  In  both  cases,  a  woman  is  untrue  to 
her  husband;  in  Heywood's  play,  she  is  made  to  suffer  for 
her  infidelity,  but  in  Kotzebue's  play,  she  is  made  a  hero- 
ine, her  crime  is  glossed  over,  and  she  is  completely  re- 
conciled to  her  husband,  just  as  she  is  about  to  part  from 
him,  by  the  appearance  of  the  "long-motherless"  children. 

"The  Noble  Lie",  a  continuation  of  "The  Stranger",  is 
also  a  domestic  melodrama,  as  are  Mrs.  Inchbald's  transla- 
tions, produced  as  "Family  Distress",  and  "The  Wise  Man 
of  the  East".  Each  of  these  plays,  to  use  Boaden's  words, 
"put  a  prize  on  immorality".  (Boaden,  II:  p.  249.) 

Kotzebue's  romantic  plays  were  also,  popular  in  England. 
On  May  24,  1799,  Sheridan's  adaptation  of  Kotzebue's 
"Pizarro",  was  brought  out  at  Drury  Lane.  Edition  after 
edition  of  it  was  printed  in  the  next  few  years,  and  down 
to  the  third  quarter  of  the  next  century,  ."Pizarro"  with 
Rolla  and  Cora,  with  its  inflated  rhetoric  and  spectacular 
effect,  with  its  illogicality  and  sentimentality,  drew  large 
audiences  when  it  was  produced.  Similarly,  were  produc- 
ed his  other  American  romantic  melodramas,  under  the 
titles  of  "The  Spaniards  in  Peru",  and  "The  Virgin  of  the 

—20— 


Sun",  as  well  as  his  fourteenth  century  romance,  "Joanna 
of  Montfaucon". 

These  plays  bring  the  record  of  melodrama  down  to  the 
production  of  "A  Tale  of  Mystery".  Many  melodramatic 
productions  have  been  passed  over  in  the  survey,  but 
enough  has  been  said  to  suggest  that  the  elements  that 
compose  melodrama  have  been  existant  in  England  from 
very  early  times;  that  before  the  earliest  examples  of 
"German  drama"  had  made  their  appearance,  what  to  all 
intents  was  melodrama,  existed  in  England;  that,  although 
English  melodrama  borrowed  somewhat  from  the  French 
drama  and  opera,  nevertheless,  the  type  in  England  in 
some  form  or  other  at  least,  was  coexistan-t  in  both  coun- 
tries. 


—21— 


CHAPTER  III 

The  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  can  scarcely 
be  called  a  period  of  the  literary  drama.  Although  many 
of  the  writers  usually  associated  with  the  Romantic  Reviv- 
al essayed  the  writing  of  dramas,  and,  although,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  these  dramas  were  given  a  hearing,  prac- 
tically none  of  them  were  theatrically  successful.  Cole- 
ridge, Southey,  Wordsworth,  Byron,  Shelley,  Lamb,  and 
Maturin  ,  all  tried  to  write  dramas;  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  last,  none  were  successful,  although,  from  a 
literary  point  of  view,  "Remorse",  "Wat  Tyler",  "The  Bord- 
erers", "Manfred",  "The  Cenci",  and  "John  Woodvil"  com- 
mand varying  degrees  of  interest.  The  dramatic  pro- 
duction of  the  age  was  really  in  the  hands  of  unliterary 
men,  using  that  term  in  the  narrower  sense.  It  was  in 
the  hands  of  men  of  the  theatre,  and  principally  those  men 
of  the  theatre  who,  although  they  were  keen  observers  of 
the  public  and  its  wants,  and  who,  as  managers  and  play- 
wrights in  all  ages  have  done,  gave  to  the  public  what  it 
desired,  were  as  a  rule  comparatively  unimportant  as  work- 
ers. Many  plays  were  written,  but  more  were  translated 
from  other  languages  or  adapted  from  novels,  tales,  poems, 
and  the  like.  Of  those  that  were  produced,  a  large  per- 
centage were  melodramas  and  spectacular  dramas.  Con- 
sequently, a  survey  of  the  drama  of  this  period  is  rather 
a  record  of  theatrical  forms  and  successes  than  of  the  liter- 
ary drama.  Few  of  the  plays  demand  consideration  from 
the  standpoint  of  style,  although  many  of  them 'deserve 
commendation  because  of  the  way  in  which  theatrical  ef- 
fects have  been  handled  or  plots  worked  out. 

Several  things  conspired  to  produce  these  results:  the 
desire  for  novelties;  the  predominance  of  theatrical  mana- 
gers and  actors  as  playwrights;  the  growth  of  minor  thea- 
tres; the  influence  of  the  productions  of  the  minor  thea- 
tres on  the  policy  of  the  larger  theatres;  and  the  increas- 
ing tendency  to  dramatize  novels  and  other  literary  suc- 
cesses. These  conditions  will  be  considered  in  the  course 
of  this  chapter. 

All  the  melodramas  and  melodramatic  productions  of 
the  period  cannot  profitably  be  considered.  The  object  is 
to  suggest  the  great  number  of  these  plays,  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  transitory  character  of  most  of  them,  and  to 
ascertain  what  changes  in  form,  method  ,and  manner  took 

—22— 


place.  In  attempting  to  do  this,  the  subject  has  been  con- 
sidered chronologically  with  notice  and  comment  on  the 
more  important  productions. 

The  first  melodrama  so  named  in  England,  "A  Tale 
of  Mystery",  has  already  been  considered.  The  author  of 
the  play,  Thomas  Holcroft  (1745-1809)  was  a  busy  writer 
for  the  stage  from  1778  until  his  death.  During  these 
years,  he  wrote  no  less  than  twenty-five  plays,  one-fourth 
of  which  were  melodramas,  although  at  least  as  many  more 
have  melodramatic  qualities.  Most  of  these  plays  came 
before  1802,  and  have  already  been  noticed.  The  only 
other  one  after  this  date  that  deserves  even  a  word  is  'The 
Lady  of  the  Rock",  (1805),  a  combination  of  improbabili- 
ties and  spectacle  in  what  proved  to  be  but  a  poor  melo- 
drama. One  of  the  interesting  scenes  in  the  acted  play 
is  said  to  have  been  a  realistic  storm  at  sea,  during  which 
a  fisherman  brings  Lady  Maclean,  the  heroine,  from  an 
exposed  rock  where  she  has  been  placed  to  die. 

On  January  15,  1802,  eleven  months  before  "A  Tale  of 
Mystery"  was  presented,  Matthew  Gregory  Lewis  (1775- 
1818)  brought  out  "Alfonso,  King  of  Castile",  at  Covent 
Garden.  The  play  belongs  distinctly  to  the  School  of  Ter- 
ror. The  extravagant  mediaevalism  of  the  stories  of  this 
school  was  early  seized  upon  by  the  writers  of  melodrama 
and  soon  became,  to  all  intents,  in  the  minds  of  many,  the 
sign  of  melodrama. 

"Alfonso,  King  of  Castile",  was  called  by  its  author  a 
tragedy,  and  tragedy  it  is,  but  its  methods  are  so  extrava- 
gant, so  mediaeval,  so  terrifying,  that  it  may  be  looked 
upon  as  an  example  of  that  regular  line  of  English  popular 
tragedy  afterwards  to  be  called  "melodrama",  Speaking 
of  this  play,  Boaden  says,  "His  (Lewis')  fancy  teemed  with 
monsters — treason,  frenzy,  lust,  poison,  stabbing,  shooting, 
parricide,  suicide;  the  dungeon,  the  battle,  and  that  MINE 
of  dramatic  wealth,  a  blow  up,  with  the  usual  garb  of  lan- 
guage for  such  members,  extravagant  and  bombastic  rants, 
and  such  a  prodigy  as  Alfonso  stalked  portentiously  be- 
fore a  gaping  crowd".  (Boaden,  "Memoirs  of  the  Life  of 
John  Philip  Kemble"  Vol  II:  p.  310).  If  we  were  to  add 
to  these  the  element  of  descriptive  music  and  a  few  songs, 
we  should  have  a  melodrama  in  the  exact  sense  in  which 
the  early  ninetenth  cntury  used  the  word,  for  all  the  other 
things  are  elements  of  melodrama.  Only  the  music  is 
lacking  in  the  printed  version,  and  we  cannot  be  sure  that 

—23— 


the  incidental  music  was  not  used  in  it,  as  it  has  been 
shown  that  music  was  regularly  used  in  dramatic  perform- 
ances for  about  two  centuries  before  this  time  to  height- 
en the  effect. 

Lewis,  three  years  later,  however,  wrote  "Rugantino", 
a  melodrama  dealing  with  a  real  hero  whose  desire  to  cir- 
cumvent the  evil  designs  of  the  enemies  of  his  country, 
led  him  to  disguise  himself  as  an  outlaw,  and  to  maintain 
that  disguise,  until  he  had  tracked  down  the  traitors  and 
brought  them  to  justice.  The  ability  of  Lewis  to  create 
situations  and  to  strike  terror  to  the  hearts  of  his  audience 
is  displayed  here  as  elsewhere  in  his  work.  The  dia- 
logue is  well  written  in  the  extravagant  fashion  of  melo- 
drama; but,  if  we  grant  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of 
such  people  as  are  here  depicted — and  it  is  but  asking  that 
we  grant  another  convention  to  the  drama — then  the  lan- 
guage and  the  situations  are  not  entirely  to  be  condemned. 
The  hero,  in  this  play,  is  not  merely  a  type,  as  is  the  case 
in  so  many  melodramas;  he  shows  character;  he  shows 
development  and  power. 

This  same  story  which  comes  into  English  through  Lew- 
is' novel  "The  Bravo  of  Venice"  (1804)  taken  from  a  Ger- 
man story  of  1794,  was  also  produced  in  England  by  Ellis- 
ton  as  "The  Venetian  Outlaw",  and  by  James  Powell  as 
"The  Venetian  Outlaw,  his  Country's  Friend";  and,  in 
America,  by  William  Dunlap  as  "Abaellino,  the  Great  Ban- 
dit". These,  however,  are  not  so  striking  as  is  Lewis' 
dramatization. 

On  July  31,  1802,  James  Boaden  (1762-1839)  added  to 
his  dramatic  writings  by  adapting  for  the  English  stage,  a 
play  by  M.  Caigniez,  called  "Le  Jugement  de  Salomon",  a 
melodrama  of  but  little  worth.  In  the  English  version  it 
was  called  "The  Voice  of  Nature".  The  scene  of  the  play 
is  laid  in  Sicily,  and  the  plot  is  founded  on  the  theme  of 
the  decision  of  the  wise  king  of  the  'Jews  in  the  case  of  the 
two  women  and  their  children.  (See  I  Kings:  iii:  16-18.) 

Some  of  the  plays  of  the  day,  whose  authors  had  not 
yet  presumed  enough  to  call  their  work  "melodrama",  were 
presented  as  "music  dramas".  One  of  these  came  out  at 
Drury  Lane  late  in  1803.  It  was  a  translation,  by  James 
Cobb  (1756-1818)  from  Pixerercourt's  "La  Femme  a  deux 
Maris"  (1803)  in  title  and  matter.  The  play  is  really  a 
successful  melodrama  in  all  its  elements,  and  is  worthy  of 
notice  principally  for  the  ingenious  way  in  which  the  au- 

—24— 


thor  gets  rid  of  the  villain,  Fritz.  The  heroine,  now  the 
wife  of  Count  Belflor,  as  a  girl,  had  been  deluded  by  her 
father  into  marrying  a  worthless  character,  Isador  Fritz, 
mainly  because  the  father  had  fallen  into  the  power  of 
Fritz.  Soon  after  the  marriage,  Fritz  disappeared,  and 
caused  letters  to  be  conveyed  to  his  wife  announcing  his 
death.  This  was  done  in  the  hope  that  she  would  marry 
again.  Then,  he  urged,  a  threat  of  exposure  would  force 
her  to  give  him  money.  The  scheme  worked  well,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  first  act,  Fritz  appears  with  a  confederate. 
Three  acts  of  suspense  and  surprise  follow,  and,  in  act  five 
the  countess  is  finally  rid  of  Fritz  through  the  instrumen- 
tality o£  a  stage  Irishman,  Armagh,  who  overhears  a  plot 
between  the  two  villains  to  get  the  Count  out  of  the  way. 
Fritz  was  to  quarrel  with  the  Count,  and  after  the  quarrel 
was  to  pass  a  certain  spot  knowing  full  well  that  the  Count 
would  follow  him.  The  confederate,  from  ambush,  was 
to  shoot  the  second  man.  Armagh  now  hurried  past  the 
spot.  Soon  afterwards,  Fritz,  his  quarrel  with  the  Count 
over,  hurried  past;  a  shot  was  heard;  and  the  Count  and 
the  others  enter  to  find  Fritz  the  victim  of  his  own  plot. 

In  this  same  year,  two  other  writers  of  melodrama  ap- 
pear, William  Dimond*  and  Frederic  Reynolds.**  Dim- 
ond  produced  at  Drury  Lane  on  February  19,  1803,  an  his- 
torical play,  "The  Hero  of  the  North",  the  scene  of  which 
is  laid  in  Sweden.  The  play  has  plenty  of  action,  is  inter- 
spersed with  songs,  but  is  not  nearly  so  striking  as  are 
some  of  his  later  plays.  Reynolds,  on  the  other  hand, 
added  an  element  to  his  play  of  this  year,  "The  Caravan", 
that  has  been  used  with  success  since  his  time.  A  large 
trained  dog  was  introduced  into  the  play,  and  through  him 
the  rescue,  so  essential  to  most  melodramas,  was  effected. 
The  child  of  the  hero,  thrown  from  a  rock  into  the  sea,  was 


*Of  the  life  of  William  Dimond  practically  nothing  seems 
to  be  known,  beyond  the  fact  that  he  flourished  in  the  first  two 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

**Frederic  Reynolds  wrote  nearly  a  hundred  plays,^many  of 
which  were  printed,  and  about  twenty  of  which  had  a  temporary 
popularity.  He  began  by  translating  "Werter"  from  Goethe's 
"Die  Leiden  des  jungen  Werthers"  in  the  early  eighties  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Certain  of  his  expressions  became  so  pro- 
nounced in  his  plays  that  Byron  took  a  fling  at  him  in  his 
"English  Bards  and  Scotch  "Reviewers": 

While  Reynolds  vents  his  "dammes!"  "poohs!"  and  "zounds!" 
And  common-place  and  common  sense  confounds". 

—25— 


saved  from  drowning  by  the  dog  belonging  to  the  driver 
of  a  caravan.  Contemporary  accounts  of  the  play  tell  us 
that  the  dog  acted  well.  Later,  not  only  dogs,  but  mon- 
keys, birds,  and  other  animals  were  used  to  bring  about 
denouements  or  to  effect  rescues  at  critical  points  in  melo- 
dramas, and  horses,  trained  to  do  wonderful  feats,  were 
transplanted  from  the  circus  to  the  stage  of  the  regular 
theatres,  as  members  of  the  dramatis  personae.  To  Rey- 
nolds, therefore,  belongs  much  of  the  credit  for  this  inno- 
vation in  melodrama,  which  led  to  a  long  list  of  animal 
plays  among  which  were  "Timour  the  Tartar"  (1811)  ; 
"The  Dog  Gelert"  (1813)  ;  "The  Maid  and  the  Magpie? 
(1815);  "The  Cataract  of  the  Ganges"  (1823);  Jocko, 
the  Brazilian  Monkey"  (1825)  ;  "The  Dumb  Savoyard  and 
his  Monkey"  (1829);  and  Mazeppa"  (1833). 

By  the  year  1803,  Thomas  John  Dibdin  (1771-1841)  had 
come  prominently  before  the  theatre-going  public  as  a  writ- 
er of  plays.  Principally,  a  writer  of  songs — he  is  said  to 
have  written  more  than  a  thousand — he  was  also  a  writer 
of  two  score  plays  and  in  his  position  of  proprietor  of  the 
Surrey  Theatre,  an  adapter  of  many  more.  He  is  indeed 
a  most  interesting  character  in  the  theatrical  history  of 
this  period.  A  manager  of  skill,  he  commands  attention 
on  account  of  his  ability  to  find  out  what  sort  of  play  the 
people  wanted  and  to  supply  that  demand,  even  though  he 
deserves  no  credit  for  producing  original  literary  dramas. 
He  made  it  his  business  to  hunt  for  novelties:  as  soon  as 
a  new  romance  appeared  that  he  thought  might  strike  the 
popular  fancy,  he  dramatised  it;  as  soon  as  a  new  play  was 
produced,  that  looked  as  though  it  might  pay,  he  either 
adopted  or  adapted  it,  whether  it  happened  to  be  English, 
French,  or  German.  It  was,  for  example,  during  his  pro- 
prietorship at  the  Surrey,  that  the  novels  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  caught  the  public  approvel,  arid  almost  as  quickly 
as  the  separate  stories  issued  from  the  press,  they  were 
made  into  plays  and  put  on  at  the  Surrey.  What  was  true 
of  Scott  was  equally  true  of  others.  Even  the  old  drama 
was  not  sacred  in  his  hands.  .Time  and  again,  in  his 
"Memoirs",  he  records  how  he  took  old  plays  and  revamped 
them  in  order  to  make  them  fit  the  needs  of  the  minor 
theatres.  Many  of  his  works  were  not  printed;  and,  as  a 
result,  we  must  depend  for  much  of  our  information  about 
them  on  the  comments  of  his  Contemporaries  or  on  his 
own  assertions. 

—26— 


In  1801,  he  adapted  the  ballad  of  "Alonzo,  the  Brave, 
and  Fair  Imogene"  for  the  stage  from  Lewis'  "The  Monk", 
in  what  he  called  a  "Pantomime  Romance",  entitled  "Alon- 
zo and  Imogene;  or,  the  Bridal  Spectre".  Thus  early  in 
the  new  century,  he  began  to  use  the  works  of  the  school 
of  terror.  The  next  year,  he  wrote  an  opera,  "Cabinet", 
and  a  ballad  pantomime,  "Brazen  Mask"  and  in  1803,  he 
brought  out  his  "The  English  Fleet  in  1342",  a  play  on  the 
subject  of  Jane  de  Montford.  All  of  these  plays,  we  are 
told,  were  full  of  "clap-trap",  all  of  them,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  plots  and  the  criticisms  made  of  them,  were  melo- 
dramas, and  yet  all  were  successful,  if  thirty  or  forty  per- 
formances in  a  season  may  be  taken  as  a  criterion  of  suc- 
cess. 

At  Covent  Garden,  on  Easter  Monday,  1804,  Dibdin's 
remarkably  successful  romantic  "melo-drame",  "Valentine 
and  Orson",  was  produced.  The  play  is  one  of  a  class  of 
melodramas,  afterwards  so  numerous,  that,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  designation,  may  be  called  "foundling  plays".  *  In 
this  particular  play,  Valentine  is  sent  out  to  fight  and 
bring  back  prisoner  one  whom  he  simply  knows  as  a  wild 
manr  but  who  is  afterwards  declared  by  the  oracle'  to  b.e 
his  brother;  in  it  also,  a  princess  enters  the  lists,  is  over- 
thrown, but  rescued  from  death  by  the  strong  armed  and 
valiant  Valentine;  and  champions  of  renown  and  giants 
of  power  fall  before  the  wild  brother.  The  play  is  not 
only  extravagant  in  action  and  speech;  it  is  filled  also  with 
most  spectacular  scenes.  It  is  a  melodrama  that 'lives  up 
to  the  type  described  by  Douglas  Jerrold  in  his  evidence, 
before  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  Dra- 
matic Literature:  a  piece  addressed  to  the  eye  rather  than 
to  the  ear,  a  play  that  contains  "what  are  called  a  great 
many  telling  situations",  a  play  in  which  the  conflict  is 
physical  rather  than  mental.  (See  "Report  from  the  Select 
Committee  on  Dramatic  Literature:  with  The  Minutes  of 
Evidence.  Ordered  by  the  House  of  Commons  to  be 


*  A  'foundling,  play  is  to  be  interpreted  as  any  play  in  which, 
for.  the  purpose  of  plot,  and  in  order  to  secure  the  necessary 
suspense,  the  identity  of  one  of  the  principal  characters  is  not 
disclosed  at  the  opening  of  the  play.  In  each  case,  the  character 
in  question,  either  does  not  know  the  secret  of  his  birth,  or  else 
he  is  a  "long  lost  brother"  whose  death  is  supposed  to  have  been 
brought  about  by  some  foul  means,  or  who,  for  other  reasons,  has 
disappeared.  In  "Valentine  and  Orson",  the  wild  man  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  play,  proves  to  be  Valentine's  brother. 

—27— 


printed,  2  August,  1832",  p.  158;  questions  2843  and  2844.) 
Similar  in  motive  to  Dibdin's  play  was  the  next  pro- 
duction of  William  Dimond,  but  the  unfolding  of  the  plot 
did  not  depend  on  mediaeval  times,  on  knights  and  giants. 
"The  Hunter  of  the  Alps",  a  one  act  play,  was  brought  out 
in  the  summer  of  1804,  at  the  Haymarket,  and  showed  Di- 
mond with  an  increase  of  theatrical  power,  although  it  be- 
trayed no  advance  in  literary  skill.  Again  we  have  the 
long  lost  brother  appearing  at  just  the  right  moment  to 
save  his  brother  and  his  brother's  family  from  starvation. 
Felix,  thought  to  be  dead,  happens  to  return  to  the  region 
where  his  brother  Rosalvi  known  as  "The  Hunter  of  the 
Alps"  is  living  in  desperate  circumstances.  Maddened,  al- 
most, by  the  knowledge  that  his  children  are  starving,  Ros- 
alvi, meets  Felix,  lost  from  his  companions,  in  the  wood 
and  attempts  to  rob  him.  Unaccustomed  to  such  prac- 
tices, Rosalvi  breaks  down  just  as  Felix  is  about  to  "stand 
and  deliver",  and,  in  a  fit  of  remorse  for  having  yielded  to 
the  temptation  to  rob,  he  tells  Felix  of  his  circumstances. 
Felix  then  forces  his  purse  on  Rosalvi.  Thinking  only  of 
his  family,  Rosalvi  rushes  off  to  procure  provisions,  leav- 
ing Felix  hopelessly  lost  in  the  wood.  He  is  wandering 
around  when  Rosalvi's  two  children  come  upon  him  and 
lead  him  to  their  hut.  Rosalvi,  suspected  by  the  villagers 
who  are  hunting  for  Felix,  of  having  killed  ^nd  robbed 
the  lost  man,  now  rushes  into  the  hut.  pursued  by  the 
searchers.  But  everything  is  explained,  and  Rosalvi  says, 
"Two  years  since,  misfortune  drove  us  to  this  wilderness, 
and  I  am  here  as  Vincent,  the  poor  Hunter  of  the  Alps;  but 
Turin  gave  me  birth,  and  the  name  of  my  family  is  Ros- 
alvi". To  this  Felix,  in  true  melodramatic  style,  cries, 
"What?  Rosalvi?  Good  heavens!  I  am  almost  choking! 
Give  me  breath!  Speak — is  your  name  Ferdinand  Rosalvi?" 
and  then  it  comes  about  that  these  two  are  brothers,  and 
everything  ends  happily.  The  plot  is  well  constructed. 
As  literature,  the  play  has  practically  no  value,  but  as  an 
example  of  stagecraft,  it  is  exceedingly  well  done. 

Not  because  of  any  great  merit  in  the  writing  of  melo- 
dramas, but  rather  because  of  the  position  he  secured  as 
a  novelist  and  a  wit,  the  two  melodramas  of  Theodore  Ed- 
ward Hook  (1788-1841)  deserve  mention.  In  November 
of  1806,  he  had  produced  at  the  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  "Tek- 
eli;  or,  the  Siege  of  Montgatz",  a  melodrama  in  three  acts. 
It  has  really  nothing  to  commend  it;  it  deserves  mention 

—28— 


merely  because  its  battle  scene,  used  increasingly  in  melo- 
drama, at  the  end  was  a  great  spectacular  display*  Two 
other  plays  were  written  by  Hook;  "The  Fortress"  (1807) 
and  "The  Siege  of  St.  Quintin"  (1808). 

In  1807,  Lewis  brought  out  two  productions,  different 
in  general  form,  but  both  melodramas.  The  first  of  these 
was  "The  Wood  Daemon;  or,  the  Clock  has  Struck",  a  ro- 
mantic melodrama  in  two  acts,  which  was  later  enlarged 
to  three  acts  and  presented  at  the  Lyceum  in  1811  as  "The 
Knight  and  the  Wood  Daemon;  or,  the  Clock  strikes  One!" 
It  was  printed  as  "One  O'Clock;  or,  the  Knight  and  the 
Wood  Daemon".  It  differs  in  no  way  from  the  other 
melodramas  of  the  period. 

"Adelgitha;  or,  the  Fruits  of  a  Single  Error",  the  sec- 
ond of  these  plays,  is  more  worthy  of  notice.  With  its 
"old  bombastic  tyrant",  as  Macready  calls  Guiscard,  (Mac- 
ready  "Diaries"  p.  130)  it  held  the  stage  well  down  toward 
the  end  of  the  century.  Like  "Alfonso"  it  is  not  so  much 
a  melodrama  in  the  music  and  drama  sense,  although  it  is 
full  of  all  the  other  elements  of  melodrama.  It  parades 
as  a  five  act,  blank  verse  tragedy,  and  displays  some  at- 
tempts at  characterization,  not  the  too  usual  elements  of 
melodrama.  The  play  is  a  combination  of  foundling  and 
problem  play.  Foundling,  in  that  Lothair  does  not  know 
his  parentage  until  the  end;  problem,  in  that  the  play  pro- 
pounds the  eternal  question,  "can  a  woman  live  down  a 
false  step?"  Lewis,  himself,  in  a  note  at  the  end  of  the 
play,  tells  us  that  he  wrote  the  play  to  show  "the  difficulty 
of  avoiding  the  evil  consequences  of  a  first  false  step". 
That  he  was  logical  in  the  conduct  of  his  plot  cannot  be 
denied.  Although  there  is  plenty  suspense  and  many  sur- 
prises that  serve  to  put  off  the  tragedy,  Lewis  does  not 
avoid  it:  Adelgitha  has  sinned  and  she  pays  the  penalty 
by  suicide  at  the  end  of  the  play. 

No  musical  accompaniment  is  provided,  but  bombast, 


*  Battle  scenes  in  English  dramas  were  no  new  thing.     From 
the   time   when 

"with  three  rusty  swords, 

And  help  of  some  few  foot-and-half-foot  words" 
the  old  dramatist  fought  "over  York  and  Lancaster's  long  jars" 
down  to  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing,  battle  scenes  were  a 
regular  thing  on  the  English  stage.  The  noteworthy  thing  here 
is  that  melodramas,  during  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century  employed  them  in  increasing  number  as  a  means  of  spec- 
tacular effect. 

—29— 


horror,  lust,  murder,  all  are  here.  The  usual  types  of 
character  recur — villain,  virtuous  hero,  persecuted  heroine, 
in  this  instance  trying  to  make  amends  for  a  sin,  all  are 
to  be  found.  The  ranting  that  is  characteristic  of  the  play 
and  that  stamps  it  a  melodrama  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
scene  in  which  Michael  tries  to  kill  Guiscard.  After  re- 
fusing to  assist  him  further,  Guiscard  says  to  Michael, 

"Stretch   to   the  utmost 

Thy  power  to  vex  Apulia  and  its  lord; 

With  barks,  like  locust-clouds,  o'erspread  the  ocean; 

Rob  all  thy  realms  of  men,  and  at  one  effort 

Pour  thy  whole  population  on  our  coasts; 

Still  shalt  thou  see  thy  squadrons  like  ripe  corn 

Beneath  the  reaper's  scythe,  laid  low,  encountering 

The  patriot  subjects  of  a  patriot  prince, 

Who  loves  his  people,  whom  his  people  love. 

Sulk  as  thou  may'st  behind  thy  brazen  bulwarks 

Of  hired  Varangiand  and  degenerate   Greeks, 

I'll  find  thee,  doubt  not;    hew  my  desperate  passage 

Through  swords  and  shields;   nor  shall  my  arm  rest  know 

Till  on  thy  casque  my  trusty  sword  has  cleft 

Byzantium's  crown   in   twain. 

MICHAEL,  I'll  hear  no  more —  (Drawing  a  dagger) 

Vain  boaster,  die! 

(Attempts  to  stab  Guiscard,  who  wrests  the  dagger  from 

him) 
GUIS.     Ha!      (A   pause,    after   which   he   returns   the   dagger.) 

Take  thy  steel  again, 
And  use  it  to  a  nobler  deed.     (Michael  stamps  in   rage.)" 

This  extract  also  illustrates  the  type  of  Lewis'  blank  verse, 
that  has  but  little  to  commend  it  beyond  its  bombast  and 
its  wild  sentiments.  It  is,  to  all  intents,  merely  prose 
masquerading  as  verse.  In  addition  to  all  these  things, 
the  play  employs  Gothic  chambers,  and  subterranean  pas- 
sages and  caverns,  the  setting,  not  only  of  the  romances 
of  terror,  but  of  many  melodramas,  as  well. 

The  fondness  of  writers  of  melodrama  for  the  foundling 
play  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  almost  every  writer  of 
this  type  of  play,  in  this  period,  at  some  time  or  other  in 
his  career,  constructed  a  play  on  this  motive,  and  often 
more  than  one.  An  interesting  example  came  in  1807, 
when  in  "The  Blind  Boy",  a  blind  character,  a  foundling, 
was  substituted  for  the  dumb  character  found  in  such 
plays  as  "A  Tale  of  Mystery".  In  both  cases  we  have  a 
descendant  of  the  continental  play  in  that  an  attempt  is 
made  to  secure  sympathy  for  the  principal  character  not 
through  any  real  merit  of  his  own,  but  because,  in  these 
instances,  of  a  physical  defect.  'The  Blind  Boy",  called 

—30— 


by  Dibdin,  "a  serious  melodrama"  (Dibdin,  "Reminiscen- 
ces" I:  p.  416)  and  ascribed  by  Genest  to  Captain  Hewet- 
son,  was  produced  on  December  1,  1807,  at  Covent  Garden. 
The  play  is  laid  in  Poland,  is  well  constructed,  and  as  a 
theatrical  exhibition,  commendable.  It  has  the  musical 
accompaniments,  the  processions,  the  songs,  so  well  known 
to  melodrama.  In  addition,  it  is  merely  a  drama  of  situa- 
tion, and  a  tissue  of  improbabilities,  with  the  necessary 
amount  of  bombast.  The  blind  boy,  thought  to  be  a  peas- 
ant, suddenly  turns  out  to  be  the  son  of  King  Stanislaus. 
Because,  as  an  infant,  he  had  been  blind,  another  had  been 
substituted  for  him  in  the  cradle.  His  substitute  was 
Rudolph,  now  high  in  power,  and  through  his  actions — for 
he  knew  whence  he  derived  his  power — Edmond,  the  real 
son  of  the  king,  is  kept  away  from  the  court  and  in  ignor- 
ance of  his  position.  We,have  a  scene  in  which  an  attempt 
is  made  to  drown  Edmond,  and  the  suspense  and  horror 
of  the  attempt  on  his  life  as  he  is  led  along  to  the  sea, 
show  the  possibilities  of  melodrama.  Here,  as  elsewhere 
in  the  play,  the  language  is  not  great  nor  finely  wrought, 
but  it  is  well  enough  done  for  a  play  that  aims  to  secure  its 
effects  through  action  rather  than  through  words. 

This  play  shows,  too,  a  device  common  to  melodrama, 
in  that  the  denouement  is  brought  about  by  a  very  ordi- 
nary person.  The  peasant,  Oberto,  on  a  great  and  solemn 
occasion,  stands  out  before  the  court,  and  denounces  Rud- 
olph, the  usurper,  great  and  powerful  though  he  is,  as  an 
imposter  in  favor  of  Edmond,  a  blind  boy  and  seemingly 
only  a  peasant.  Then,  practically  no  proof  being  asked, 
Oberto  is  believed  and  Rudolph,  powerful  prince,  is  torn 
from  his  place  and  Edmond  is  restored  to  his  father.  'Un- 
fortunately, although  we  may  desire  much  to  read  men's 
hearts  in  their  faces,  and  judge  their  words  by  what  we 
have  read,  this  seldom  happens  except  in  melodrama.  So 
common  are  these  elements  in  melodrama  that  it  has  seem- 
ed well  to  make  special  mention  of  them. 

Again,  the  play  suggests  another  device  prevalent  in 
all  melodrama.  Here  lightning  and  thunder — no  new 
thing  of  course  in  plays — are  used  in  the  scene  where  the 
murder  of  Edmond  is  attempted,  and  it  is  by  means  of  the 
vivid  flashes  that  the  rescue  is  effected.  I  should  say  that 
fully  three  fourths  of  the  melodramas  use  thunder  and 
lightning  in  one  or  more  of  the  critical  scenes  of  the  play. 
Perhaps,  this  use  in  scenes  where  blood  is  let,  or  where 

—31— 


murder  is  attempted,  accounts  for  the  designation  we  often 
give  to  plays  of  the  type  under  consideration:  "blood 
and  thunder  melodrama". 

The  year  1808  was  productive  of  nothing  new  or  orig- 
inal, with  the  possible  exception  of  a  French  burlesque 
melodrama  which,  Dibdin  tells  us,  "was  a  very  sensible 
and  whimsical  satire  on  the  great  rage  (then  at  its  height) 
for  melodramas,  and  I  brought, it  out  under  the  titles  of 
'BONIFACIO  AND  BRIDGETINA,  OR  THE  KNIGHTS 
OF  THE  HERMITAGE,  OR  THE  WINDMILL  TURRET, 
OR  THE  SPECTRE  OF  THE  NORTH-EAST  GALLERY' 
with  a  prelude  explanatory  of  what  was  to  follow".  (Dib- 
din, as  above,  Vol.  I:  pp.  415-416).  This,  apparently,  was 
not  printed,  for  no  copy  is  obtainable.  In  spite  of  its  impos- 
ing title,  however,  and  the  good  opinion  Dibdin  seems  to 
have  had  of  it,  the  play  was  not  successful  and  was  with- 
drawn. 

All  the  other  dramas  of  this  year,  were  either  trans- 
'ated  from  the  French  or  adapted  from  other  plays  or 
from  tales.* 

The  year  1809,  although  only  two  or  three  plays  of  im- 
portance were  produced,  is  more  noteworthy,  from  the 
standpoint  of  melodrama  in  the  early  nineteenth  century 
:han  is  the  preceeding  year. 

Dimond,  in   "The  Foundling  of  the  Forest",  brought 
^ut  in  the  Haymarket  in  July,  reached  rather  a  high  plane 
"f  melodrama.      Later  it  was  said  that  he  had  taken  the 
ilay  from  the  French.       Genest's  remark  is  interesting: 
it  would  have  been  a  good  piece",  he  says,  (Vol.  VIII:  pp. 
^50)  "if  it  had  not  been  degraded  from  a  place  in  legiti- 
mate drama  by  the  introduction  of  6  (sic)  or  7  (sic)  songs, 
•vithout  any  good  reason".      Equally  interesting  is  D.  G's. 
George  Daniels)  statement  in  the  preface  to  Lacy's  act- 
ing edition  of  the  play:    "The  materials  of  this  drama,  if 


*"Th3  Forest  of  Hermanstadt;    or,  Princess  and  No  Princess" 

translated  from  the  French  by  Thomas  Dibdin; 
"The    Exile",    a    melodramatic    opera,    by    Frederic    Reynolds, 

and  founded  on  Madame  Cottin's  story  "Elizabeth"; 
"Venoni;    or,  the  Novice  of  St.   Mark's",  translated  from   "Les 

Victimes  Cloistrees",  by  M.  G.  Lewis; 
"The   Wanderer;    or,   the   Rights   of  Hospitality,"  altered  from 

Kotzebue  by   Charles   Kemble;    and 
"Point  of  Honor",  altered  from   the  French  play,   "Le  Desert- 

eur",  by  Charles  Kemble. 

—32— 


not  of  the  newest  fashion,  are  wrought  up  with  skill,  and 
produce  a  powerful  effect  in  representation.  They  are 
romantic  without  being  impossible.  We  detest  the  cant 
of  probability!  If  we  go  to  the  play,  we  desire  not  to  see 
the  dull  old  story  of  this  working-day  world  grumbled 
over  again ;  but  to  have  our  curiosity  excited,  our  sympa- 
thy awakened,  our  eyes  and  ears  feasted  with  stirring  inci- 
dents and  ravishing  sounds".  Both  of  these  statements 
bear  out  the  remark  often  made  in  these  pages  that  im- 
probability is  one  of  the  tenets  as  music  was  looked  upon 
as  one  of  the  requirements,  in  this  period  of  melodrama. 

The  play  tells  a  story  of  the  Count  de  Valmont,  who, 
on  returning  from  the  wars,  found  his  castle  burnt  and,  as 
he  supposed,  his  wife  and  infant  son  dead  in  the  ruins. 
Distracted,  he  wanders  away;  and,  in  the  wood,  hearing  a 
low  moan,  his  attention  is  attracted  to  an  infant  child 
whom  he  adopts  and  treats  as  a  son.  Florian,  as  the  boy 
is  known,  grows  to  manhood  and  becomes  a  soldier.  He 
sues  for  the  hand  of  Valmont's  niece;  and,  now,  the  villain 
who  has  deprived  Valmont  of  his  wife  and  child  seeks  to 
prevent  the  marriage  of  the  neice,  Geraldine,  to  Florian. 
Attempts  are  made  on  Florian's  life  but  they  are  not  suc- 
cessful; and  he  makes  his  way  to  a  hut  in  the  forest  where 
lives  with  Monica,  an  old  peasant,  a  woman  supposed  to 
be  wild.  When  this  wild  woman  sees  Florian,  she  shrieks 
and  rushes  off  and  out  of  the  house,  but,  later,  when  Ber- 
trand  and  Sanguine,  the  two  bravos  enter  at  the  window  in 
search  of  Florian  and  are  about  to  kill  him,  the  mysterious 
woman  appears  and  the  bravos  are  frightened  off  as  if  by 
a  spectre.  Later  Eugenia,  for  the  mad  woman  is  no  other 
than  Valmont's  wife,  makes  her  way  to  the  castle,  and 
after  several  more  narrow  escapes  from  death  at  the  hand 
of  Longueville,  is  united  to  her  husband  and  to  Florian 
who  proves  to  be  their  son. 

In  the  same  year  as  "The  Foundling  of  the  Forest", 
came  another  play  that  aids  us  admirably  in  our  effort  to 
differentiate  the  types  of  plays  that  were,  at  this  time, 
called  melodramas.  Dibdin's  "The  Lady  of  the  Lake", 
which  he  calls  a  "Melodramatic  Romance  in  Two  acts  from 
Sir  Walter  Scott",  was  acted  at  the  Surrey,  in  1809.  (Dib- 
din,  I:  p.  435).  Here  a  pure  romance  which  contains 
scarcely  any  of  the  elements  that  are  usually  found  in 
melodrama,  is,  by  the  simple  addition  of  music,  pantomime, 
and  stage  settings,  made  into  a  melodrama.  The  exact 

—33— 


words  of  the  poem  are  kept,  but  much  music  and  dumb 
show  is  inserted.  In  fact,  the  play  is  more  like  pantomine 
with  some  speaking  parts  than  it  is  like  anything  else. 
For  example,  notice  the  following: 

ACT    I. 

"Scene  I. — Romantic  view  on  Loch  Katrine — horns  and  dis- 
tant hunting  cries  heard — Hunters  seen  passing  on  the  rilg-es 
of  the  mountain  above  the  lake — Music — the  broad  red  sun  is 
seen  to  go  down  behind  the  brows  of  the  hills — a  solitary  horn 
sounds. 

A  voice  without.     Hillio!     Hillio! 

(The  horn  sounds  nearer,  and  the  voice  is  heard  louder.) 
Enter  Fitzjames,  R.,  quite  weary,  and  leans  against  the  rock. 

Fit.     So,  crossing  yonder  rugged  dell, 
My  gallant  horse  exhausted  fell; 
I  little  thought  when  first  thy  rein 
I  slack'd  upon  the  Banks  of  Seine, 
That  Highland  eagle  e'er  should  feed 
On  thy  fleet  limbs,  my  matchless  steed. 
Woe  worth  the  chase,  woe  worth  the  day, 
That  cost  thy  life,  my  gallant  Gray! 

MUSIC. — He  looks  around,  and  sounds  his  horn — it  is  echoed — 
he  listens — all  is  quiet. 

'Twas  echo  mock'd — the  war  and  chase 
Give  little  choice  of  resting  place; 
But  foes  may  in  these  wilds  abound, 
Such  as  are  better  miss'd  than  found. 
To  meet  with  Highland  plund'rers  here, 
Were  worse  than  loss  of  steed  or  deer. 
Well,    fall    the    worst    that    may    betide,    ' 
E'en  now  this  faulchion  has  been  tried. 

Sounds  his  horn  agjain — soft  Music — he  listens,  looks,  and 
sees  a  lady  in  the  Highland  costume  navigating  a  little  skiff,  L. — 
at  the  same  time  the  white-robed  figure  of  an  ancient  bard 
(ALLAN  BANE)  appears  on  the  mountain,  L.,  with  a  cross  in  his 
hand — he  points  Fitzjames  out  to  the  lady,  who  gracefully  beckons 
him  to  enter  the  boat — he  is  too  much  employed  with  gazing  on 
her,  to  look  at  the  bard,  who  disappears,  L, — the  lady  rouses  him 
from  his  astonishment  by  beckoning  again— he  steps  into  the  boat, 
which  she  is  going  to  push  off — he  gently  takes  the  boat-hook 
from  her — she  points  out  the  way— he  pushes  off  the  boat,  L.,  and 
the  scene  closes." 

Scene  IV  of  the  first  act  is  similar  in  that  we  have  only 
eighteen  lines  spoken  in  the  entire  scene,  the  rest  of  the 
time  being  taken  up  with  a  grand  procession  and  chorus. 

The  play,  containing  only  two  acts,  provides  for  fifteen 
scenes,  eight  of  which  differ  entirely  from  the  others. 

—34— 


All  of  these  characteristics  were  elements,  by  means  of 
which,  in  the  making  of  the  plays  for  the  minor  theatres, 
the  law  regulating  dramatic  performances  might  be  evad- 
ed. 

This  year,  and  the  mention  of  the  minor  theatres,  calls 
up  the  name  of  William  Elliston,  (1774-1831)  who,  at  this 
time,  began  his  work  as  manager  of  the  Royal  Circus  (Sur- 
rey Theatre).  It  was  through  him  and  his  ability,  that, 
for  years,  the  small  theatres,  by  producing  regular  plays  as 
melodramas  and  burlettas,  avoided  the  law  until  they  be- 
came so  strong  that  the  large  theatres  were  compelled, 
first,  to  adopt  their  methods,  and,  finally,  to  succumb  to 
the  inroads  made  upon  them  by  surrendering  their  monop- 
oly. Elliston,  on  the  last  day  of  October,  1809,  at  the 
Surrey,  produced  "Macbeth"  as  a  "Grand  Ballet  of  Music 
and  Action"  (Genest,  IX:  p.  337),  and  also  brought  out 
Dibdin's  "melodramatic  burletta,  in  two  acts,  of  the  Har- 
per's Son  and  the  Duke's  Daughter".  (Dibdin,  Vol.  I:  p. 
435). 

In  "The  Free  Knights;  or,  the  Edict  of  Charlemagne", 
by  Frederic  Reynolds,  produced  in  February,  1810,  at  Co- 
vent  Garden,  (Genest,  VIII:  p.  180),  the  element  of  ter- 
ror, in  a  Gothic  setting,  is  given  full  rein.  Reynolds  called 
the  play  "  a  drama  in  three  acts  interspersed  with  songs". 
It  is  a  melodrama.  The  story  deals  with  a  secret  tribunal, 
whose  members  are  sworn  to  absolute  obedience.  The 
tribunal  parades  as  a  means  of  righting  the  wrongs-of  men 
and  women,  but  is,  in  reality,  merely  an  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  the  Prince  Palatine  to  enable  him  to  keep  the 
position  that  actually  belongs  to  another.  It  contains  the 
heroine  persecuted  because  she  stands  in  the  Prince's  way; 
the  valiant  young  hero  falling  into  the  toils  of  the  villain; 
and  the  father  of  the  heroine,  on  account  of  false  accusa- 
tion, compelled  to  go  into  hiding,  but  finally  summoning  up 
courage  to  overthrow  the  villain.  The  play  is  built  up 
on  the  foundling  motive,  in  that  Agnes,  the  heroine,  is 
ignorant  of  her  position  in  life  until  the  end  of  the  play, 
the  only  one  who  seems  to  know  her  real  place  in  life  be- 
ing the  Prince  Palatine  who  is  persecuting  her.  The  play 
is  full  of  inflated  writing  and  of  romantic  but  improbable 
situations.  The  language  is,  for  the  most  part,  such  as 
never  man  spoke,  with  its  long,  involved  sentences,  its 
grandiloquent  diction,  and  its  stilted  style. 

Other  melodramas  that  were  presented  during  the  years 

—35— 


1810  and  1811  were  written  by  Dimond,  Grossette,  and 
lasac  Pocock  (1782-1835).  Dimond  took  his  play  "The 
Hero  of  the  North",  (See  above  p.  25)  and  transformed  it 
into  an  out  and  out  melodrama  that  he  called  "Gustavus 
Vasa",  by  providing  for  the  actual  presentation  on  the 
stage -of  actions  that,  in  the  earlier  play,  has  merely  been 
narrated  by  one  or  the  other  of  the  characters.  He  like- 
wise brought  out,  in  the  summer  of  1810,  "The  Doubtful 
Son;  or,  Secrets  of  a  Palace",  said  to  have  been  a  serious 
and  good  piece  in  five  acts.  A  new  version  of  "The 
Monk"  entitled  "Raymond  and  Agnes",  was  made,  in  the 
same  year,  by  Henry  William  Grossette,  a  mediocre  writer 
for  the  stage,  who,  in  1811,  also  made  a  stage  version  of 
"Marmion".  Pocock's  contribution  during  this  summer 
was  called  "Twenty  Years  Ago,  a  Melodramatic  Entertain- 
ment". It  was  afterwards  brought  out  by  the  Drury  Lane 
Theatre  Company  in  1811  at  the  Lyceum,  the  theatre  in 
which  it  had  first  been  produced. 

In  1816,  Richard  Lalor  Shiel  (1791-1851)  came  before 
the  public  in  a  blank  verse  tragedy,  "Adelaide;  or,  the 
Emigrants".  This  play,  from  its  theme  of  seduction  to  its 
glorification  of  villainy  in  Lunenberg,  who  after  his  duel 
with  Adelaide's  brother,  runs  on  his  sword  and  dies  with 
sentimental  phrases  on  his  lips,  contains  all  the  elements 
of  melodrama.  His  second  play,  "The  Apostate",  al- 
though it  was  more  successful  than  "Adelaide",  is  scarcely 
better  as  a  drama,  and  if  anything  much  more  melodra- 
matic. - 

The  plot  of  "The  Apostate"  concerns  Hemeya,  a  Moor, 
who,  for  the  love  of  Florinda,  becomes  a  Christian.  Pes- 
cara,  the  governor  of  Granada,  wishes  to  possess  Florinda, 
and  he  invokes  the  aid  of  the.  Inq.uisition  to  secure  the 
death  of  Hemeya  and  the  other  Moors  in  the  city.  After 
a  series  of  scenes  that  fairly  reek  with  horror  and  bombast, 
the  play  ends  with  the  death  of  the  three  principal  charac- 
ters. Each  scene  has  its  climax,  and  every  character  roars 
down  the  other.  The  music  and  songs  only  are  missing. 
It  pretended  to  be  a  blank  verse  tragedy,  but  it  succeeded 
only  in  becoming  a  series  of  rhetorical  extravagances  in 
verse  form.  Doran  aptly  characterizes  it  as  "furious". 
He  continues,  "There  was  the  bombast  of  Lee,  but  none  of 
his  brilliancy;  the  hideousness  of  his  images  without  any- 
thing of  their  grand  picturesqueness".  (Doran,  "Annals 

—36— 


of  the  English  Stage"  etc.  Vol.  11:372.)  Two  exam- 
ples of  this  rant  and  fury  will  serve.  In  speaking  of  the 
King,  Malec  says, 

"his  gloomy  throne 

Is  palled  with  black,  and  stained  with  martyr's  blood, 
While  superstition,  with  a  torch  of  hell, 
Stands  its  fierce  guardian."  Act  III,  Sc.  1. 

Florinda,  at  the  end  of  the  same  act,  on  being  asked  by 
Hemeya  if  she  will  follow  him,  exclaims, 

"Throughout  the  world! 

I'll  fasten  to  thy  fate,  I'll  perish  with  thee.  « 

I  stand  upon  the  brink  of  destiny,  * 

And  see  the  deep  descent  that  gapes  beneath:  — 
Oh!    since  I  cannot  save  thee  from  the  gulf, 
From  the  steep  verge  I'll  leap  with  thee  along — 
Cling  to  thy  heart,  and  grasp  thee  with  my  ruin! 

(Throws  herself  into  his  arms — he  bears  her  off.)" 

These  plays  were  written  by  Shiel  for  Miss  O'Neill,  and, 
in  spite  of  their  limitations,^kept  the  stage  until  the  end  of 
the  century.  His  other  pfays,  written  for  the  same  ac- 
tress, although  exceedingly  melodramatic  can  hardly  be 
said  to  be  melodramas.  "Evadne;  or,  the  Statue",  called 
simply  a  "play"  is  the  best  of  all  of  Shiel's  work,  although 
it  is  filled  with  the  most  inflated  speech  and  sprinkled  with 
the  most  strained  figures. 

Another  Irishman,  Maturin  (1782-1824),  more  literary 
in  his  work,  also  essayed  to  write  for  the  stage,  and,  in 
1816,  his  "Bertram;  or,  the  Castle  of  St.  Aldobrand"  ap- 
peared at  Drury  Lane  a  week  after  Shiel's  "Apostate"  had 
appeared  at  Covent  Garden.  "Bertram"  was  not  Matur- 
in's  first  work  for  the  stage,  for  he  had  written  "The  Fatal 
Revenge"  in  1807,  but  it  was  not  successful.  It  was  "Ber- 
tram" that  brought  him  into  prominence.  So  great  was 
that  prominence  that,  within  a  year,  seven  editions  of  the 
play  had  been  published,  and  in  the  waning  days  of  the 
season  of  1815-16,  the  play  enjoyed  a  run  of  twenty-two 
performances.  (Genest,  VII:  pp.  532-535.) 

In  this  play,  the  school  of  terror  reaches  its  climax. 
Horror  is  heaped  on  horror;  pompous  and  inflated  lan- 
guage permeates  every  scene;  and  the  whole  play  abounds 
in  blood  and  terror.  Almost  every  speech  of  the  half- 
crazed  Count  Bertram  is  designed  to  thrill  or  to  cause  a 
shudder.  In  fact,  the  whole  thing  goes  so  far,  that  an- 
other step — and  that  a  small  one — would  bring  the  play 
into  the  realm  of  the  burlesque.  Hazlitt,  who  is  mild  in 
his  statement,  has  said  of  it,  "It  is  a  sentimental  drama,  it 

—37— 


is  a  romantic  drama,  but  it  is  not  a  tragedy,  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word".  (Hazlitt,  "Complete  Works"  ed.  by  W. 
E.  Henley,  Vol.  VIII:  p.  305.) 

It  is  this  play  that  Coleridge  so  scathingly  attacked  in 
his  "Critique  on  Bertram".  (Coleridge,  "Biographia  Liter- 
aria",  pp.  652,  seq.)  In  this  article  are  attacked  the  im- 
probability, especially  of  the  shipwreck;  the  morals;  the 
"super-tragic  starts"  etc.  It  is  in  this  critique  that  we 
find  Coleridge's  interesting  remarks  about  the  German 
drama,  of  which  this  play  is  usually  thought  to  be  an  ex- 
ample. 

The  play  was  successful  as  far  as -stage  presentation 
was  concerned.  As  much  cannot  be  said  of  his  later  plays, 
"Manuel"  (1817),  and  "Fredolfo"  (1817).,  both  of  which 
were  of  the  same  general  type  as  "Bertram". 

Other  plays  of  the  year  J816,  none  of  which  rise  above 
mediocrity,  and  none  of  which  show  elements  of  originality 
in  stage-craft  or  scenic  effects,  were  Thompson's  "Ober- 
on's  Oath;  or,  the  Paladin  and  the  Princess;"  Dimond's 
"Broken  Sword;"  Bell's  "Watchword;  or,  the  Quinto 
Gate;"  Morton's  "£lave;"  and  Dibdin's  plays,  "The  Sicil- 
ian: an  operatic  melodrama",  "The  Silver  Swan",  and  "Pit- 
cairn's  Island". 

In  1818,  Scott's  "Rob  Roy"  was  converted  into  "an  op- 
eratic play  in  three  acts",  entitled,  "Rob  Roy  Macgregor; 
or,  Auld  Lang  Syne",  by  Isaac  Pocock,  and  the  heroine, 
Diana  Vernon,  was  transformed  into  a  singing  girl.  But 
in  this  absurdity,  Macready  gained  a  success.  George 
Soane,  (1790-1860)  whom  we  now  meet  for  the  first  time, 
dramatized  the  same  novel  of  Scott^  changing  the  plot  in 
many  places,  but  showing  little  of  the  power  that  he  later 
gained  in  his  dramatic  work. 

Didbin  produced  at  the  Surrey,  this  year,  two  drama- 
tizations: one,  "The  Reprobate,"  from  Mrs.  Opie's  tale  of 
that  title;  the  other,  "The  Lily  of  St.  Leonards;  or,  the 
Heart  of  Midlothian",  which,  he  tells  us,  "was  acted  above 
one  hundred  and  seventy  nights  in  the  space  of  nine 
months".  (Dibdin,  II:  p.  156).  Another  version  of  this 
novel  of  Scott  made  by  Terry,  and  called  "Heart  of  Mid- 
Lothian;  a  melodramatic  Romance",  was  acted  at  Covent 
Garden.*  The  dialect  of  the  original  was  suppressed  for 


[*  Dimond  took  the  Terry  and  the  Didbin  versions  and  com- 
bined them  and  brought  out  "Heart  of  Mid-Lothian;  or,  the  Lily 
of  S't.  Leonards"  at  Bath  on  the  third  of  December,  1819.] 

—38— 


the  most  part,  but  Scott's  words  were  otherwise  fairly  well 
kept.  The  play  which  ends  with  the  pardon  and  restora- 
tion of  Jeanie  Deans  is  a  melodrama  in  the  sense  that  the 
intense  situations  of  the  book  are  made  use  of,  that  it  ends 
happily,  that  spectacular  processions  are  employed,  and 
that  musical  accompaniments  and  songs  are  introduced. 
A  somewhat  similar  method  was  employed  and  similar  re- 
sults were  obtained  in  John  William  Calcraft's  adaptation 
of  "The  Bride  of  Lammermoor",  acted  first  at  Edinburgh. 
This  play,  however,  is  rather  a  romantic  tragedy  with  melo- 
dramatic methods  than  an  out  and  out  melodrama. 

George  Soane,  mentioned  above  in  connection  with  dra- 
matization of  Scott,  began  to  write  melodramas  in  1817, 
when  he  produced  'The  Inn  Keeper's  Daughter,"  founded 
on  Southey's  poem,  "Mary,  the  Maid  of  the  Inn".  This  is 
another  drama  constructed  on  circumstantial  evidence,  with 
much  thunder  and  lightning,  and  many  thrills  of  the  penny 
dreadful  sort.  The  end  involves  a  sensational  rescue  of 
the  hero  by  the  heroine.  The  play,  with  its  rather  puerile 
dialogue,  liberally  sprinkled  with  hackneyed  speeches,  is  not 
very  different  from  the  popular  melodrama  of  today. 
Soane,  in  his  preface  to  the  play,  gives  us  some  interesting 
information  which,  though  not  new  in  matters  of  theatrical 
presentation,  nevertheless,  recalls  the  difficulty  involved 
in  judging  plays  wholly  by  the  printed  copy.  "This  print- 
ed copy",  he  says,  "will  be  found  to  differ  in  very  many  in- 
stances, from  the  acting  text — a  difference  which  partly 
arose  from  necessity.  To  unite  the  two  texts  was  impos- 
sible, and  to  print  from  the  prompt-book  during  the  run 
of  the  piece  was  no  less  impracticable.  Judicious,  there- 
fore, as  the  alterations  have  been,  I  was  forced  to  retain 
the  original".  (Preface  to  play,  in  Vol.  25,  "English  Dra- 
ma".) Such  remarks  lend  weight  to  contemporary  criti- 
cisms of  the  plays  when  we  find  our  own  judgment  of  the 
printed  text  in  opposition  to  the  critics'  designation  of  the 
play.  What  the  printed  text  may  show  to  be  a  tragedy  or 
a  comedy,  may  have  been  in  the  acting,  melodrama. 

In  1319,  Soane's  contributions  were  two  in  number: 
"The  Dwarf  of  Naples,  a  Tragi-comedy  in  five  acts",  in 
blank  verse,  at  Drury  Lane,  March  13;  and  "Self-Sacri- 
fice; or,  the  Maid  of  the  Cottage,  a  melodrama  in  two  acts", 
in  prose,  at  the  English  Opera  House,  on  July  19.  The 
former  is  a  romantic  play,  written  for  Edmund  Kean,  full 
or  inflated  speeches  and  thrilling  situations.  It  attempts 

—39— 


to  imitate  the  Elizabethan  drama,  but  with  little  success, 
although,  at  times,  the  blank  verse  rises  above  the  plane 
of  mediocrity.  In  the  sense  in  which  music  is  necessary 
for  melodrama,  this  is  no  melodrama,  although  its  theme 
and  method  are  melodramatic.  One  is  tempted  to  justify  the 
feeling  that  it  is  melodrama  by  referring  it  to  the  stand- 
ards set  by  Charles  Kemble,  who  ,  in  his  evidence  before 
the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  (Report,  p.  44, 
question  603)  said,  "with  respect  to  melo-drama,  they  do 
not  depend  for  success  on  splendor.  On  the  contrary,  I 
should  say  the  most  successful  melo-dramas  have  been 
those  which  depended  on  strong  excitement  in  the  story 
or  incidents  of  the  piece".*  A  different  type  of  play, 
however,  is  "Self-Sacrifice".  Here,  Soan.e  has  produced  a 
good  mixture  of  the  circumstantial  evidence  play,  the  rob- 
ber play,  and  the  foundling  play,  and  placed  them  all  in 
a  sensational,  over-drawn  atmosphere.  Here  are  horror, 
murder,  and  surprise  a-plenty.  Here  are  scenes  of  vio- 
lence and  spectacular  power:  an  escape  from  a  vault;  a 
storm  at  sea  with  a  shipwreck;  a  fight  on  a  bridge  which 
gives  way  and  precipitates  the  villain  into  the  water;  a 
further  period  of  suspense  in  which  he  almost  captures 
the  heroine,  and  then  the  felling  of  a  tree  by  the  hero, 
and  the  rescue  of  the  heroine.  The  play  is  filled  with  hair- 
breadth escapes,  that,  without  doubt,  thrilled  the  popular 
audience. 

Henry  M.  Milner,  a  prolific  writer  of  plays,  produced,  late 
in  1818,  one  of  the  first  of  his  plays,  "Barmecide;  or,  the 
Fatal  Offering".  Genest  remarks,  "Milner  has  brought 
about  a  happy  catastrophe — the  incidents  of  the  last  act 
are  not  very  probable,  but  in  a  professed  Romance  this 
is  no  unpardonable  fault — the  author  allows  that  his  piece 
is  that  sort  of  Drama,  in  which  the  effect  depends  more 
upon  situation  and  happy  execution  of  what  is  technically 
called  'stage  business'  than  the  merit  of  the  writer". 
(Genest,  VIII  :p.  575-6.)  In  these  remarks  have  been 
stated,  with  great  insight,  the  elements  of  what  was  being 
looked  upon  more  and  more  as  illegitimate  drama.  This 
sort  of  play  in  the  minds  of  actors,  managers,  and  dra- 
matisis,  who  appeared  before  the  Committee  of  the  House 


*Peter  Francis  Laporte,  Manager  of  French  plays  at  the 
Tottenham  Street  Theatre  and  the  Opera,  '(ibid.  p.  128,  question 
2268)  pointed  out  that  "There  is  a  very  narrow  line  between  a 
tragedy  and  a  melodrama." 

—  40— 


of  Commons,  in  1832,  was  almost  synonomous  with  "melo- 
drama" for,  in  several  instances,  on  being  asked  about  il- 
legitimate drama,  melodrama  was  described.  (See  testi- 
mony of  W.  T.  Moncrieff,  "Report",  p.  178,  question  3156; 
of  Douglas  Jerrold,  ibid.,  p.  158,  question  2843;  and 
others.) 

There  is  less  doubt  of  the  character  of  Milner's  "The 
Jew  of  Lubeck;  or,  the  Heart  of  a  Father;  a  serious  Drama 
in  Two  Acts",  of  which  the  author  says  in  the  preface, 
"Several  motives  operated  in  combination  toward  the  pro- 
duction of  this  trifle.  The  first  was  a  desire  to  produce 
an  entertainment,  which,  without  aspiring  to  the  dignity 
of  tragedy,  might  yet  partake  of  tragic  pathos;  and  which 
would  engraft  the  license  of  melo-drama  upon  a  tale 
simple  and  natural  ,  and  arising  out  of  an  universal  prin- 
ciple of  animal  creation — the  fondness  of  a  parent  for  its 
offspring."  (Preface  to  "The  Jew  of  Lubeck",  in  Vol  27, 
"English  Drama".)  The  license  of  melodrama  is  a  good 
phrase,  describing,  as  it  does,  the  exaggeration  permissable 
in  this  form  of  play.  This  is  almost  the  first  remark  of 
the  period  that  suggests  that  some  definition  of  melo- 
drama was  in  progress. 

The  play  details  the  story  of  an  Austrian  nobleman 
who,  because  of  a  conspiracy  against  him  has  been  forced 
to  fly  from  home  and  is  now  living  in  Lubeck  disguised 
as  a  Jew.  His  murder  is  attempted  by  those  who  con- 
spired against  him,  after  they  had  been  forced  to  leave 
Austria,  not  because  they  know  him,  but  because  he  is 
rich.  Suddenly,  his  daughter,  whom  he  thought  lost,  ap- 
pears on  the  scene,  from  where,  nobody  knows,  and  no 
explanations  are  offered.  She  overhears  the  plot,  and  pre- 
vents its  execution.  She  now  makes  her  way  to  the  Prince 
Ferdinand,  secures  pardon  for  her  brother,  who  is  in 
danger  of  execution,  rushes  in  with  it  just  as  he  is  to  be 
shot  and  all  ends  happily.  No  reasons  are  given  for  sud- 
den twists  and  turns;  there  is  no  characterization  what- 
ever, yet  this  play  seems  to  have  "got  over  the  foot-lights" 
through  situations  well  worked  up. 

In  it,  too,  the  musical  element  is  not  so  prominent. 
There  are  but  few  songs  and  the  printed  edition  makes 
no  provision  for  incidental  music,  although  I  am  convinced 
that  the  prompt  book,  were  it  obtainable,  would  show  mus- 
ical cues. 


In  considering  the  group  of  melodramas  just  dis- 
cussed, it  is  possible  to  discover  certain  definite  types  of 
the  species.  First,  there  is  that  type  brought  in  from 
abroad,  of  which  "A  Tale  of  Mystery"  is  an  example; 
secondly,  that  of  the  school  of  terror,  exemplified  in  most 
of  the  plays  of  "Monk"  Lewis,  and  in  such  plays  as 
"Bertram"  and  the  tragedies,  so-called,  of  Shiel;  thirdly, 
there  is  the  musical  play,  in  which  almost  anything  of  a 
more  or  less  romantic  nature  is  treated  to  incidental  music 
and  songs,  so  as  to  enable  the  minor  theatres  to  evade 
the  law,  and  is  called  either  melo-drama  or  misnamed 
burletta;  such  plays  may  have  been  original  or  were 
merely  dramatizations  of  novels  or  adaptations  of  old  plays. 
In  many  instances,  the  designation  of  plays  of  this  last 
group,  was  merely  a  means  of  evading  the  law.  A  fourth 
group  consists  of  plays  that  are  really  domestic  in  type 
although  the  passion  or  sentiments  involved  are  so  much 
exaggerated  that  they  fall  into  the  realm  of  melodrama. 
In  these  the  even  tenor  of  the  plot  is  warped  by  surprises 
and  situations  that  catch  at  the  throat  of  the  spectator, 
and  the  ending  is  held  in  suspense  by  the  reported  dangers 
that  threaten  hero  or  heroine. 

The  twenties  were  marked  in  part  by  the  great  number 
of  dramatizations  of  Scott  and  other  novelists.  The  year 
1820,  alone,  produced  no  less  than  five  from  Scott,  and  in 
the  following  years,  the  novels  were  dramatized  as  they  left 
the  press.  That  they  were  held  to  be  melodramas  is  at- 
tested by  Hazlitt,  who,  writing,  in  March  1820,  of  the 
dramatization  of  "The  Antiquary",  says,  it  "is  not,  we 
think,  equal  to  the  former  popular  melo-dramas  taken 
from  the  same  prolific  source."  (Hazlitt,  Works",  Vol. 
VIII  :p., 413.) 

The  year  1820  also  saw  "Belisarius"  translated  from 
the  French  by  Dibdin  and  called  a  "serious  melo-drama", 
(Dibdin,  Vol.  II:  p.  188)  while  C.  E.  Walker  produced  a 
rather  interesting  melodrama  which  he  called  "The  War- 
lock of  the  Glen",  a  Scotch  play  based,  like  "A  Tale  of 
Mystery",  on  an  attempted  fratricide.  (See  Thackeray's 
amusing  description  of  the  play  in  an  article  written  for 
"Punch"  on  October  18,  1845,  and  published  as  "A  Brigh- 
ton Night  Entertainment"  in  the  volume  entitled  "Travels 
in  London",  p.  202,  pub.  by  Macmillan.) 

Perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  production  of  the  early 

—42— 


twenties  was  William  T.  Moncrieff's  *  "Cataract  of  the 
Ganges;  or,  the  Rajah's  Daughter,  a  grand  romantic 
drama  in  two  acts".  Here  is  a  spectacular  melodrama 
raised  to  the  nth.  power.  Twelve  changes  of  scene  are 
provided  and  two  grand  processions,  besides  singing  and 
dancing.  In  addition,  there  are  other  spectacular  feat- 
ures: signal  fires  are  lighted;  battles  are  fought;  and 
finally  a  remarkable  escape  is  made  when  "Zamme  mounts 
the  courser  of  Iran,  and  while  he  keeps  the  foe  at  bay, 
dashes  safely  up  the  Cataract,  amidst  a  volley  of  musketry 
from  the  enemy  on  the  heights".  (Act  II,  Sc.  vi.)  Mon- 
crieff  in  this  instance  has  displayed  that  power  of  stage- 
craft for  which  he  is  well  known.  The  language,  how- 
ever, is  strained  and  rhetorical,  and  the  characters  are 
but  types. 

It  is  of  interest  to  notice  that  Moncrieff  takes  occa- 
sion, in  this  play,  to  blow  the  loud  trumpet  for  England. 
Jam  Saheb  is  talking  to  Mordaunt,  the  Englishman,  about 
'female  infanticide'  which  has  just  been  established  by 
the  Rajah's  edict: 

"To  thee  and  to  thy  country  be  the  palm — from  thee 
it  springs.  Generous  Britons — greatest  of  mortal  con- 
querors, your  battle  is  on  Virtue's  side — your  aim  is 
charity — your  victory  peace. — You  spread  your  sway  o'er 
your  opponents'  hearts,  and  carry  the  Christian  spirit  of 
your  race  through  every  clime  to  civilize  and  bless! — Long, 
long  may  you  extend  your  sway,  which  conquers  but  to 
bestow — and  combats  but  to  save!" 

This  apostrophe  is  a  fair  example  of  Moncrieff's 
style.  His  characters  all  talk  in  balanced  and  antithetical 
sentences,  the  style  of  the  orator  rather  than  of  the  writer 
of  plays. 

This  play  ran  for  fifty  nights  during  the  first  season 
and  kept  the  boards  until  the  seventies,  Button  Cook,  for 
example  recording  a  production  at  the  Drury  Lane  Theatre 
in  March,  1873.  (Dutton  Cook,  "Nights  at  the  Play," 
Vol.  I:p.  260). 

That  perversion  of  fact  is  part  and  parcel  of  many 
melodramas  was  illustrated  this  same  year,  1823,  when 


*  William   T.   Moncrieff    (1794-1857)    began   to  write   for  the 

stage   in    1815,   and   continued   until   his   death.     Many   of   the  170 

dramatic  pieces  that  he  wrote  were  melodramas,  the  first  one  be- 
ing a  translation  of  "La  Vampire",  in  1819. 

—43— 


Edward  Fitzball  (1792-1873),  sometimes  referred  to  as 
Mr.  Ball,  brought  out  his  "Joan  of  Arc;  or,  The  Maid 
of  Orleans,  a  melodrama  in  three  acts",  at  Sadler's  Wells 
in  August.  Here  we  have  a  prose  play  copied  after  the 
method  of  the  chronicle  play.  It  teems  with  soldiers,  bat- 
tles, and  processions.  Incidental  music  and  exaggeration 
are  to  be  found  in  the  play,  but  neither  of  these  elements 
is  so  prevalent  as  in  other  melodramas.  Beyond  the  res- 
cue of  Joan  from  the  stake  at  the  end  of  the  play,  the 
historical  sequence  of  events  is  well  preserved  and  faith- 
fully recorded.  The  play,  except  for  the  ending,  had  it 
been  in  five  acts,  might  have  passed,  at  the  patent 
theatres,  during  these  lean  years,  as  a  tragedy.  It  ap- 
parently was  called  melodrama  either  because  of  the  per- 
version at  the  end  or  in  order  to  evade  the  law  regarding 
minor  theatres.  If  the  first  is  true,  it  lends  some  evidence 
to  support  the  claim  of  those  who  call  melodrama  illogi- 
cal tragedy;  if  the  second,  one  is  sure  that  melodrama, 
in  this  early  century  sense,  may  have  been  anything  that 
contained  enough  of  the  elements  of  music  to  evade  the  law 
regarding  regular  performances.  Weight  is  added  to  the 
second  of  these  conclusions  when  we  read  that  Dibdin  had 
altered  Joanna  Baillie's  tragedy,  "Constantine  Paleaolo- 
gus,"  "and  produced  it  as  a  melo-drame,  with  the  title  of 
'Constantine  and  Valeria,' "  with  music  by  Sanderson" 
(Dibdin,  II:  p.  136),  and  "put  'Fatal  Curiosity'  into  form 
suitable  to  a  minor  theatre,  with  the  new  name  of  The 
Murdered  Guest,'"  (ibid.  p.  152)  while  "Fazio"  was  made 
into  a  melodramatic  romance  in  three  acts  "for  the  Olym- 
pic" and  "Douglas"  into  a  melodrama. 

The  year  1826  witnessed  the  production  of  the  first 
play  by  John  Baldwin  Buckstone,  (1802-1879).  This  play, 
"Luke  the  Labourer",  he  called  "a  domestic  drama".  The 
designation  is  interesting  in  that  it  points  out  a  new  road 
that  melodrama  was  to  follow.  There  had  been  melodra- 
mas imported  from  the  continent  that  dealt  with  the  com- 
mon folk  in  their  domestic  relations,  and  many  of  the 
plays,  that  were  original  in  England,  -had  told  stories  of 
the  lower  classes  abroad,  but  most  of  the  melodramas  up 
to  this  time,  had  been  concerned  with  the  heroic  and  the 
romantic;  few,  if  any,  dealt  with  English  lower  class  life. 
Although  T.  P.  Cooke,  ah  actor,  before  the  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  in  discussing  this  play,  called  it 
a  domestic  piece,  (Report:  p.  148,  question  2650)  and  in- 


ferred  that  it  differed  from  "The  Pilot",  which  he  called 
a  melodrama,  the  only  difference  between  them  as  far 
as  form  is  concerned  is  that  one  had  to  do  with  the  land, 
and  the  other  with  the  sea. 

"Luke  the  Labourer",  which  came  out  at  the  Adelphi, 
concerns  the  rescue  of  Farmer  Wakefield  from  the  ven- 
geance of  Luke,  by  his  long  lost  son.  Philip,  the  son,  had 
been  stolen  by  the  gypsies  when  he  was  a  mere  child  and 
had  later  gone  to  sea'.  He  returns  in  the  course  of  the 
first  act  of  the  play  just  in  time  to  prevent  his  sister's 
being  carried  off  and  his  father's  being  killed.  The  sit- 
uations are  most  thrilling,  and  the  rescues  truly  marvel- 
ous. Clara  is  saved  from  Luke  by  the  timely  appearance 
'of  Philip  in  the  midst  of  a  raging  storm  in  which  thunder 
and  lightning  play  prominent  parts;  arid  Farmer  Wake- 
field  is  rescued  by  Philip  and  the  very  gypsies  who  had 
stolen  him  when  a  child  and  who  now  just  happen  to  be 
in  the  neighborhood  and  are  willing,  by  this  act,  to  make 
amends  for  the  wrong  they  had  committed  some  twenty 
years  before. 

Such  a  play  leads  naturally  to  a  long  list  of  plays 
by  Buckstone,  Jerrold,  Pocock,  Milner,  and  others,  that 
go  under  the  general  name  of  domestic  drama.  One  of 
the  most  horrible  examples  of  the  species  is  H.  M.  Mil- 
ner's  "The  Gambler's  Fate;  or,  Thirty  Years  of  a  Game- 
ster's Life",  in  which  the  gambler  who  deceives  his  bride 
on  her  wedding  day  by  selling  her  jewels  to  game  with, 
goes  from  one  stage  of  degredation  to  another,  until  we 
find  him  and  his  old  familiar  murdering  his  own  son,  who, 
as  a  stranger,  has  come  to  save  him  and  his  mother,  from 
penury. 

In  1827,  at  Sadler's  Wells,  in  a  rather  obscure  way,  be- 
gan a  type  of  melodrama  that  had  scarcely  died  out  today. 
Under  the  designations  of  domestic  dramas  and  romantic 
melodramas,  Irish  plays,  usually  very  sentimental  in  their 
nature,  appeared  on  the  boards.  "Suil  Dhuv,  the  Coiner", 
by  Dibdin,  is  the  first  of  a  long  list  that  includes  produc- 
tions by  Lever,  and  Lover,  and  Boucicault  and  continues 
to  the  present  in  such  plays  as  "The  Kerry  Gow"  and 
"The  Shaugraun"  and  the  wearisome  plays  of  Andrew 
Mack  and  other  "singing  Irish  comedians". 

"Suil  Dhuv"  is  a  combination  of  robber  and  foundling 
play,  in  which,  after  two  acts  of  seduction,  blood,  and 
robbery  ,everybody  is  saved  and  reunited  as  Suil  Dhuv, 

—45— 


villain  and  robber  as  he  is,  makes  a  sensational  escape  by 
leaping  into  the  lake  as  the  soldiers  sent  to  take  him  fire 
a  parting  volley  after  him. 

Other  Irish  pla}  s  that  may  be  mentioned  as  immed- 
iately following  this  play  of  Dibdin's,  are  "Thierna-na- 
Oge;  or  the  Prince  of  the  Lakes",  called  "a  melodramatic 
Fairy  Tale",  that  appeared  at  Drury  Lane,  in  1829,  (not 
printed) ;  and  two  others,  dealing  with  Irish  robbers,  that 
came  out  at  the  Surrey.  The  first,  "Black  Hugh,  the  Outlaw," 
"a  domestic  drama",  by  W.  Rogers,  dealt  with  the  adven- 
tures of  Hugh  Macarthy  and  his  band  of  Whiteboys;  and 
the  second,  "Bampfylde  Moore  Carew;  or,  the  Gypsy  of 
the  Glen",  published  anonymously,  was  a  story  of  .seduc- 
tion that  depended  for  its  unfolding  on  a  band  of  rob- 
bers. Many  others  followed,  the  authors  of  which,  among 
others,  were  W.-R.  Floyd,  J.  A.  Amherst,  and  James  Pil- 
grim. 

J.  R.  Planche,  (1796-1880)  known  to  the  stage  prin- 
cipally for  his  farces,  in  1820  published  an  adaptation  of 
the  French  melodrama,  "La  Vampire",  and  later  brought 
out  at  Drury  Lane,  "The  Child  of  the  Wreck",  a  melo- 
drama, in  which  a  dumb  boy,  a  foundling,  adopted  by  a 
fine  lady,  is  made  the  victim  of  circumstantial  evidence 
in  connection  with  a  robbery.  The  play  is  a  return  to  all 
the  elements  of  the  type  of  melodrama  found  in  "A  Tale 
of  Mystery".  It  does  not,  however,  attempt  to  appeal 
through  scenic  accessories  as  did  the  older  plays. 

Planche's  "Charles  XII",  called  "  a  historical  drama", 
is  likewise  a  melodrama  as  is  his  "The  Brigand",  brought 
out  the  following  season,  (1829).  In  the  latter,  Allez- 
andro  Massaroni,  a  bandit,  whose  perfect  poise  and  pol- 
ished manners,  enabled  him  to  make  his  way  into  the 
palace  of  the  man  who  is  hounding  him  and  who  after- 
wards proves  to  be  his  father,  at  a  time  when  the  latter 
is  holding  a  grand  reception,  points  the  way  to  the  Raf- 
fles type  of  polished,  gentlemanly  burglars  of  our  own 
day. 

An  interesting  feature  of  "The  Brigand"  is  the  pro- 
vision that  Planche  makes  for  the  tableaux  at  the  end  of 
several  scenes  in  his  play.  He  directs  that  the  curtain 
shall  descend  on  reproductions  of  several  pictures  in  the 
"Eastlake's  Series"  of  prints  of  Italian  brigands.  It  is 
probable  that  the  inspiration  for  the  play  came  from  this 
series  in  much  the  same  manner  as  we  are  led  to  believe 


that  the  inspiration  for  Douglas  Jerrold's  "Rent-Day" 
came  from  Sir  David  Wilkie's  pictures  of  the  "Rent-Day" 
and  "Distraining  for  Rent".  (See  editorial  introduction 
to  French's  acting  edition  of  "Rent-Day"  in  No.  xxviii  of 
French's  Standard  Drama.) 

The  mention  of  "Rent-Day"  leads  naturally  to  the 
work  of  Douglas  Jerrold,  (1803-1857)  whose  "Black-Eyed 
Susan;  or,  All  in  the  Downs",  adapted  from  the  old  ballad 
of  the  same  title,  made  Elliston's  fortune  again,  at  the 
Surrey,  after  his  ejectment  from  Drury  Lane,  for  it  had 
no  less  than  400  performances  in  the  year  it  was  first  pro- 
duced, (1829).  The  play  came  out  definitely  as  a  "Melo- 
Drama"  (Genest,  IX:  p.  515),  and  was  later  published  as 
"a  nautical  Drama".  "Black-Eyed  Susan"  tells  the  story  of 
a  young  sailor,  William,  and  his  wife,  Susan.  William  has 
been  at  sea  for  a  year,  and  during  that  time,  Susan  has 
lived  with  Dame  Hatley  in  a  cottage  belonging  to  her 
(Susan's)  uncle.  The  play  opens  with  a  scene  in  which 
Dame  Hatley  is  being  distrained  for  rent  at  the  order  of 
the  uncle.  About  this  time,  William's  ship  comes  to  port, 
and  William,  as  he  comes  off  the  ship,  is  just  in  time  to 
save  his  wife  from  an  attack  by  several  ruffians.  He 
brings  her  to  an  inn  where  she  is  insulted  by  the  now  in- 
toxicated Captain  Crosstree,  commander  of  William's  ves- 
sel. The  scene  that  results  follows: 

"(Music.— CROSSTREE  seizes  SUSAN;  she  breaks  away  from  him, 
and  runs  off,  U.  E.  L.;  he  follows  and  drags  her  back,  L.,  and, 
as  he  throws  her  round  to  R.  H.,  she  shrieks.)  Enter  WIL- 
LIAM, with  drawn  cutlass,  SAILORS  and  GIRLS,  U.  E.  L. 

WILLIAM.  Susan!  and  attacked  by  buccaneers!  Die!  (Strikes 
CROSSTREE  with  cutlass;  throws  him  around  to  L.  H.;  he 
is  caught  by  SEAWEED.— SUSAN  rushes  up  to  WILLIAM, 
and  falls  at  his  feet). 

OMNES.     The  Captain! 

'(SAILORS,  PLOUGHSHARE,  RUSTICS.— Male  and  female  form 
a  group). 

For  this  assault  on  his  captain,  William  is  court  mar- 
tialled  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged  at  the  yard-arm.  The 
third  scene  of  the  second  act  is  a  good  example  of  the  way 
in  which  these  nautical  melodramas  were  brought  to  a 
conclusion: 

"SCENE :  The  forcastle  qf  the  ship.  Discovered,  the  PARSON 
MASTER-AT-ARMS,  with  a  drawn  sword  under  his  arm.  WIL- 
LIAM, without  his  neckcloth.  MARINES,  OFFICER  OF  MARINES, 
ADMIRAL,  CAPTAIN,  LIEUTS.,  and  MIDSHIPMEN.  A  SAILOR 

—47— 


standing  at  one  of  the  Forecastle  guns,  with  the  lockstring  in  his 
hand.  A  platform  extends  from  the  cat-head  to  the  fore  rigging. 
Slow  Music. 

MASTER-AT-ARMS.     Prisoner,    are    you    prepared? 

WILLIAM.     Bless  you!     Bless  yo.u  all— 

(Mounts   the   platform,   when    CAPT.   CROS'SEREE    rushes    on 

from  the  gangway,  3  E.  L.     ADMIRAL  crossing  into  R.  corner.) 

CROSSTREE.     Hold!     Hold! 

ADMIRAL.     Captain    Crosstree— retire,    sir,    retire. 

CROSS.  Never!  If  the  prisoner  be  executed,  he  is  a  murdered 
man.  I  alone  am  the  culprit — 'twas  I  who  would  have  dis- 
honored him. 

ADM.     This  cannot  plead  here — he  struck  a  superior  officer. 

CROSS.     No. 

ALL.     No. 

CROSS.  He  saved  my  life ;  I  had  written  for  his  discharge — villany 
has  kept  back  the  document — 'tis  here,  dated  back.  When 
William  struck  me,  he  was  not  the  King's  sailor — I  was  not 
his  officer. 

ADM.     (taking  the  paper — Music)     He  is  free — 

(The  SEAMEN  give  three  cheers. — WILLIAM  leaps  from  the 

platform— SUSAN    is    brought    on    by    CAPTAIN    CROSSTREE    3 

E.  L.  H.)" 

This  scene  with  all  its  lack  of  probability,  all  its  un- 
naturalness,  played  rapidly,  as  it  should  be  played,  could 
not  fail  to  strike  a  responsive  chord  in  the  hearts  of  a 
popular  audience.  This  scene-  is  typical  of  most  of  the 
play,  and  there  is  little  wonder,  therefore,  that  it  was  so 
successful  and  that  it  continued  to  draw  until  well  down 
toward  the  end  of  the  century.  True,  its  dialogue  is  un- 
convincing; there  is  plenty  of  theatrical  clap-trap;  much 
pulling  at  the  heart  strings,  and  a  final  happy  ending; 
but  it  proved  singularly  attractive  for  many  years. 

The  situation  of  distraining  for  rent  that  Jerrold  had 
used  in  the  opening  scenes  of  "Black-Eyed  Susan"  became 
the  main  situation  in  his  next  important  play,  "The  Rent- 
Day",  which  appeared  three  years  later.  This,  he  called 
simply  "a  domestic  drama",  and  domestic  it  is  as  was 
"Luke  the  Laborer".  The  first  act  gives  promise  of  a  good 
comedy  of  manners,  but  the  play  soon  descends  to  out 
and  out  melodrama.  It  is  the  precursor  of  what  has  been 
called  the  melodrama  of  one  big  scene — that  type  of  melo- 
drama in  which,  although  there  are  a  number  of  minor 
climaxes,  each  one  of  which  has  its  separate  thrill,  the 
emphasis  is  placed  on  one  scene  to  which  all  the  others 
lead.  In  this  play,  there  is  an  attempt  at  murder,  the  victim 

AQ 


being  saved  by  Rachel,  who  overhears  the  plotting  while 
she  is  hiding  from  the  pursuit  of  one  of  the  robbers. 
Found  later  in  the  victim's  chamber,  whither  she  had  gone 
to  warn  him,  she  is  accused  of  infidelity  to  her  husband 
who  casts  her  off,  only  to  be  compelled  to  beg  her  for- 
giveness w^hen  Grantley,  absentee  landlord  and  intended 
victim  of  fhe  plot,  explains  Rachel's  presence  in  his  room. 
The  main  scene,  however,  immediately  precedes  the  ex- 
panation.  In  it  the  catastrophe  is  averted  by  an  acci- 
dent. As  Martin,  the  householder,  struggles  with  Bull- 
frog, the  agent,  for  the  possession  of  an  arm  chair  that 
belonged  to  the  former's  grandfather,  the  back  of  the 
chair  breaks  off  and  a  shower  of  golden  guineas,  notes, 
and  papers  falls  to  the  floor.  One  of  the  papers  is  the  will 
of  the  old  man,  and  it  bequeathes  the  money  to  his  two 
grandsons.  The  rent  is  then  paid.  The  reason  for  the 
harshness  of  Crumba,  the  steward,  is  made  known,  and 
after  all  the  explanations  are  made,  the  steward  and  the 
two  robbers,  former  'pals'  of  his,  are  pardoned,  and  all 
ends  happily. 

This  play  shows  a  considerable  increase  in  power  over 
Jerrold's  "Black-Eyed  Susan".  The  dialogue  is  better, 
the  characterization  is  stronger,  and  the  plot  is  worked 
out  more  satisfactorily,  but  there  is  still  a  striving  for 
effects,  dependence  on  theatrical  tricks  and  emotional 
sentimentality  that  prevents  us  from  calling  the  play 
really  successful.  Besides  all  this,  the  play  strongly  sug- 
gests propaganda.  It  seems,  judging  from  the  nature  of 
Jerrold,  that  this  play  is  an  early  tract  against  absentee 
landlords  and  the  evil  practice  of  distraining  for  rent, 
abuses  that  were  not  changed  till  years  afterwards. 

The  year  1828,  also  saw  the  production  of  Buckstone's 
"Presumptive  Evidence;  or,  Murder  Will  Out",  a  "domestic 
drama",  based  as  the  title  indicates  on  circumstantial 
evidence.  The  victim  of  the  evidence  is  saved,  however, 
by  the  confession  of  the  actual  murderer  at  the  very  end 
of  the  play.  In  the  same  year,  Milner's  version  of  M. 
Auber's  "La  Muette  de  Portici"  was  acted  under  the  title 
of  "Masaniello;  or  the  Dumb  Girl  of  Portici",  a  melo- 
drama based  on  the  theme  of  seduction  and  revenge.  It 
has  much  that  is  spectacular,  including  an  eruption  of 
Vesuvius,  as  well  as  many  sentimental  passages  and  a 
great  deal  of  dumb  play. 

Little  that  was  new  in  the  matter  of  melodrama  appear- 

—49— 


ed  in  the  thirties.  The  forms  of  this  type  of  play  had, 
by  this  time,  been  fairly  well  defined.  Romantic  melo- 
dramas, historical  melodramas,  domestic  melodramas,  and 
nautical  melodramas  had  followed  each  other  during  the 
first  thirty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and,  although 
there  seemed  to  be  a  preponderence  of  the  last  two  kinds 
in  the  next  ten  years,  there  were  still  representatives  of 
the  former  two  classes  being  produced  and  proving  at- 
tractive. Consequently,  it  seems  necessary  only  to  men- 
tion those  examples,  of  melodrama  in  these  years  that, 
by  reason  of  their  success  or  their  situations,  added  some- 
thing to  the  old  type 

In  1830,  Pocock  produced  "The  Robber's  Wife",  an  ex- 
citing melodrama  in  two  acts  based  on  the  idea  of  the  re- 
appearance of  a  man  thought  dead.  He  finds  his  daughter 
married  to  his  worst  enemy,  a  robber  and  a  counterfeiter. 
The  end  of  the  play  is  most  exciting.  The  stage  is  dark, 
and  the  only  light  during  the  scene  is  from  a  dark  lan- 
tern. A  murder  and  a  robbery  is  planned,  both  of  which 
are  averted  by  Rose  who  has  recognized  in  the  intended 
victim  her  father  and  is  willing  to  cross  her  husband's 
purposes  in  order  to  save  her  parent.  The  play  is  a  do- 
mestic drama,  in  which  Pocock's  stagecraft  is  exhibited 
in  its  best  form  for  the  play  is  well  constructed  and  the 
situations  which  close  each  scene  lead  naturally  to  the 
'big  scene'  with  which  the  play  ends. 

Fitzball,  the  same  year,  turned  his  attention  again 
to  an  historical  theme,  and  on  May  first,  "Hofer,  the  Tell 
of  Tyrol",  called  variously  "an  historical  drama",  "a  Grand 
Historical  Opera",  and  "a  melodrama"  appeared.  It  fol- 
lows closely  the  story  o  the  revolt  of  the  Tyrolese  in 
1810,  and  in  true  melodramatic  fashion,  provides  narrow 
escapes  from  death,  horrors,  battles  and  burning  houses, 
and  ends  with  the  death,  in  most  heroic  style,  of  Andreas 
Hofer,  the  hero  of  the  play. 

In  1833,  Fitzball  achieved  a  wonderful  success  with 
his  melodrama,  "Jonathan  Bradford;  or,  the  Murder  at 
the  Wayside  Inn".  This  play,  we  are  told,  ran  400  nights, 
and  was  often  revived  afterwards.  The  plot  concerns  a 
murder  by  an  Irish  highwayman  Macraisy.  Jonathan 
Bradford,  the  inn-keeper,  outside  of  whose  inn  the  murder 
der  takes  place,  on  hearing  a  scuffle,  comes  out  to  learn 
the  cause  and  finds  only  Hayes  lying  mortally  wounded 
with  a  knife  beside  him.  In  order  to  protect  himself, 

—50— 


Macraisy,  who  is  concealed,  reports  the  dying  words  of 
Hayes  as  Bradford  stands  over  him  holding  the  bloody 
knife  he  has  picked  up:  "A  light — ah!  my  purse — that 
knife  in  his  hands!  my  assassin,  then — he — pardon- 
Bradford  is  arrested,  and  after  making  his  escape,  is  re- 
taken and  about  to  be  executed  when  Macraisy,  pale  and 
bleeding,  comes  in,  confesses  the  deed,  and  then  dies. 
There  are  parts  of  the  play  in  which  Fitzball  attempted 
blank  verse;  but  there  it  nothing  of  poetic  power  in  it, 
for  it  would  read  at  least  as  well,  written  in  prose. 

Milner's  "Mazeppa;  or,  the  Wild  Horse  of  Tartary", 
based  on  Byron's  poem,  was  performed,  for  the  first  time, 
at  Astley's  Amphitheatre,  in  1833.  This  was  a  return  to 
the  type  of  play  called  by  some  the  'hippodrama'.  In 
"Mazeppa",  the  most  spectacular  part  of  the  play  is  per- 
formed by  a  wild  horse  to  whose  back  Mazeppa  is  tied. 
Through  four  scenes  of  the  play  the  horse,  gallops  with 
his  human  burden,  and,  in  the  midst  of  a  terrific  thunder 
storm,  falls  exhausted,  and  Mazeppa  is  rescued.  He 
proves  to  be  the  son  of  the  Khan  of  the  Tartars,  succeeds 
in  frustrating  those  who  would  murder  his  father,  leads 
an  army  against  the  Poles,  and  rescues  the  daughter  of 
the  Castellan.  The  play  is  filled  with  spectacular  scenes, 
gorgeous  processions,  and  thrilling  situations.  Fifteen 
scenes  in  three  acts  are  the  record  of  the  changes  for 
this  play.  One  of  them  is  a  panorama  scene,  the  earliest 
example  in  this  type  of  play  that  I  have  discovered.  At 
the  opening  of  Act  II,  the  directions  provide  for  a  "Mov- 
ing Panorama  of  the  Course  of  the  Dneiper  River,  run- 
ning from  L.  U.  E.  to  R.  U.  E. — on  the  flat  is  seen  its 
banks,  with  a  tract  of  wild  country — tremendous  storm  of 
thunder  and  lightning,  hail  and  rain."  A  little  later,  the 
direction  is  "the  panorama  begins  to  move."  Apparently, 
from  what  follows,  for  Mazeppa,  tied  to  the  horse,  is  on 
the  stage  throughout  the  entire  scene,  a  treadmill  ar- 
rangement must  have  been  provided  for  the  scene.  It 
reminds  one  of  the  device  used  so  effectively  in  our  day  in 
"Ben  Hur". 

About  this  same  time,  Bulwer  Lytton's  story  of 
"Eugene  Aram"  was  adapted  for  the  stage  by  Moncrieff. 
In  the  play,  Moncrieff  used  the  same  methods  as  those 
who,  before  him,  had  appropriated  Scott,  Cooper,  and  other 
novelists  to  their  purposes.  He  employed  the  actual  words 
of  the  novel  and  selected  only  those  parts  in  which  the 

—51— 


emphasis  was  placed  on  the  exciting  or  the  horrible. 
Music  and  songs  were  added  and  the  Surrey  Theatre  was 
the  scene  of  the  initial  performance. 

In  1835,  Fitzball  wrote  a  melodrama  which  he  called 
"The  Note  Forger."  Brasstoun,  the  hero  of  the  play,  has 
become  a  counterfeiter  through  association  with  Cress- 
field,  but  rebels  when  Cressfield  wants  to  marry  his 
daughter.  Cressfield,  in  revenge,  turns  state  evidence 
and  brings  officers  to  Brasstoun's  house  where  the  coun- 
terfeiting paraphernalia  was  kept.  They  manage  to  get 
into  the  room,  however,  just  after  all  the  incriminating 
evidence  is  destroyed.  This  scene  where  the  officers  arrive 
at  Brasstoun's  home  is  typical  of  melodrama.  There  is 
knocking  at  the  door  and  loud  demands  that  it  be  opened, 
while  the  old  man,  with  feverish  haste,  breaks  the  plates 
used  in  making  the  notes;  then  comes  the  forcing  of  the 
door,  and,  as  it  sways,  the  question  comes  almost  to  your 
lips,  "Will  the  door  hold  until  the  evidence  is  destroyed?" 
With  the  crash  of  the  door  as  it  falls  'from  the  broken 
hinges,  the  old  man,  all  the  plates  gone,  turns  to  confront 
and  confound  Cressfield  as  he  stands  there  by  the  side  of 
the  officer  in  command.  The  play  ends  with  a  sword 
combat  between  Brasstoun  and  Cressfield  in  which  both 
of  the  combatants  are  killed.  The  play,  though  improb- 
able, shows  Fitzball  to  be  a  craftsman  of  ability,  a  play- 
wright who  knew  thoroughly  all  the  tricks  of  the  stage 
and  when  to  use  them  to  most  advantage. 

History  was  invoked  by  George  Almar,  a  minor  dra- 
matist of  the  period,  in  "The  Battle  of  Sedgemoor;  or, 
the  Days  of  Kirk  and  Monmouth",  (1837),  for  the  purpose 
of  producing  a  melodrama  in  which  seduction  and  treach- 
ery are  made  the  mainsprings  of  a  play  replete  with  bom- 
bast, music,  songs,  and  dancing,  topped  off  with  a  real 
battle  scene.  The  dialogue  is  well  written,  the  play  reads 
well,  and  bears  every  indication  of  a  good  melodrama. 

Almar's  next  venture  that  deserves  mention  is  his 
adaptation,  for  the  Winter  Garden,  of  "Oliver  Twist," 
into  what  he  called  "a  serio-comic  burletta  in  four  acts". 
Burletta  it  is  not,  no  matter  how  far  we  may  stretch  the 
term;  but  melodrama  it  is,  as  is  Fitzball's  "The  Pilot" 
previously  noticed,  which  its  author  called  "a  nautical 
burletta".  Plays  from  the  novels  of  Charles  Dickens  are 
not  ordinarily  melodramas,  but  "Oliver  Twist"  makes  use 
of  every  one  of  the  elements  we  find  in  the  most  melo- 


dramatic  melodramas.  I  can  recall  vividly  the  terror  that 
this  play  struck  into  my  heart  when  I  saw  it  a  number 
of  years  ago.  The  scenes  in  which  Nancy  is  murdered 
and  Fagin  and  Sikes  lose  their  lives  are  still  very  real  to 
me  as  I  write  these  lines.  No  play  definitely  called  melo- 
drama has  ever  made  a  more  decided  impression  than  this 
terrifying  play.  Even  to  this  day,  in  the  stock  houses, 
"Oliver  Twist,"  is  still  a  regular  number  in  the  repertory. 
And  yet,  in  1838,  Macready  told  Forster  and  Dickens,  "of 
the  utter  impracticability  of  "Oliver  Twist"  for  any  dra- 
matic purpose."  (Macready,  "Diaries,"  p.  462). 

When  we  speak  of  the  year  1838,  in  the  drama,  we 
think  of  Bulwer  Lytton's  "The  Lady  of  Lyons,"  the  first 
of  his  three  famous  plays.  This  play  and  "Richelieu," 
which  came  the  next  year  are  without  a  doubt  melodra- 
matic, and  if  'illogical  tragedy'  were  the  only  touchstone 
of  melodrama,  there  would  be  no  hesitation  in  calling  them 
melodramas.  They  are,  also,  sensational,  bombastic,  im* 
probable  anl  filled  with  false  sentiment.  The  "Lady  of 
Lyons"  resembles  a  sentimental,  romantic  comedy,  and 
"Richelieu"  approximates  a  chronicle  play.  Bulwer,  him- 
self, must  have  had  some  doubts  about  the  exact 
category  in  which  to  place  them,  for  he  called 
both  of  them  by  the  entirely  colorless  designation, 
'play',  although  when  he  came  to  writ'e  a  real  com- 
edy like  "Money",  he  had  no  hesitation  in  calling  it  a 
'comedy'.  No  less  a  person  than  Alfred  Bunn,  three  years 
before  that  time  manager  of  the  patent  theatres,  writ- 
ing on  August  30,  1838,  says,  "Saw  Charles  Kean  perform 
CLAUDE  MELNOTTE  in  Sir  E.  Bulwer's  drama  of  THE 
LADY  OF  LYONS.  A  more  red-hot,  Port  St.  Martin, 
Surrey,  Coburg  or  what-you-will  melodrama  was  never 
seen.  It  contains  amidst  some  good  situations  unskill- 
fully  worked  up,  and  amongst  some  admirable  ideas  bom- 
bastically expressed,  as  much  sheer  nonsense  as  was  ever 
palmed  on  reader  or  spectator."  (Bunn,  "The  Stage; 
Both  Before  and  Behind  the  Curtain",  etc.,  Vol.  II:  pp. 
139-140.)  Perhaps,  Bunn's  criticism  was  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  manner  in  which  it  was  acted  by  Kean, 
who  was  disposed  to  exaggerate  in  his  acting;  nevertheless, 
his  remark  gives  us  a  competent  contemporary  opinion  of 
the  nature  of  the  play,  and,  if  there  was  no  other  reason  in 
the  play  itself,  furnishes  us  with  grounds  for  including 
it  in  the  list  of  melodramas. 

—53— 


"Richelieu",  which  depends  for  its  action  on  a  letter  that 
passes  through  many  hands  before  reaching  its  destina- 
tion, ought  to  have  been  a  tragedy,  but  is  not.  There  are 
plots  and  counterplots  galore  in  the  play,  and  Richelieu 
is  near  death  several  times,  but  finally  just  as  we  are 
lead  to  believe  that  all  his  power  is  gone,  the  King,  now 
at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  act  in  an  emergency  when  con- 
spiracy is  rampant,  reinstates  Richelieu,  and  as  his  power 
returns,  his  bodily  strength  comes  back  to  him,  and  the 
play  ends  with  the  Cardinal  as  supreme  as  he  was  at  the 
opening  of  the  play.  The  whole  play  depends  for  its  suc- 
cess on  thrills,  bombast,  suspense,  surprise,  and  improb- 
able but  very  interesting  situations.  And  through  it  all 
stalks  Richelieu,  but  only  a  shadow,  as  compared  to  the 
great  Cardinal  of  the  mid-seventeenth  century. 

These  plays  bring  us  to  the  end  of  our  period.  No 
new  idea  in  melodrama  appeared  after  this.  Starting 
with  "A  Tale  of  Mystery,"  melodrama  had  had  added  to 
it,  from  time  to  time,  romantic  plots,  plots  of  terror  and 
mystery,  domestic  and  nautical  plots.  The  music,  which, 
at  the  beginning,  had  been  an  essential  part  of  melodrama, 
in  many  cases,  by  the  end  of  the  thirties,  had  become  a 
negligible  quantity  in  the  plays  of  the  species.  It  had 
drawn  its  plots  from  all  sources;  it  had  used  novels  and 
tales  and  old  dramas  as  well  as  history  and  current  events. 
It  had  employed  horses,  dogs,  monkeys,  and  birds  in  the 
working  out  of  its  plots.  It  had  stopped  at  no  improb- 
ability, but  had  depended  on  rapidity  of  action  and  the 
stage  carpenters'  ability  to  bridge  over  these  parts  that 
seemed  untrue  to  nature.  It  had  made  use  of  a  few 
situations  over  and  over  again:  robbers,  foundlings,  un- 
natural brothers,  long  lost  relatives,  and  victims  of  cir- 
cumstantial evidence,  either  singly  or  in  combination, 
were  the  motive  power  of  nine  tenths  of  these  plays.  In 
the  hands  of  a  new  group  of  playwrights,  whose  work 
began  about  the  year  1840,  the  old  situations  and  types  of 
character  continued  to  be  used,  and  the  species,  in  all 
its  forms,  has  not  ceased  to  attract  down  to  the  present 
time.  It  is  true,  that  the  spoken  melodrama  has  given 
place  largely  to  the  picture  melodrama,  in  our  day,  but, 
for  the  ordinary  class  of  people  who  attended  the  popu- 
lar priced  theatres  in  other  days,  the  'movie'  melodrama 
has  as  strong  an  appeal  as  did  the  old  'blood  and  thunder' 
play  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


APPENDIX 


BIOGRAPHY 


Collections  of  Plays. 

The  Amateur  Theatre,  a  Collection  of  Plays,  13  vols.  Edited  and 
Published  by  T.  H.  Lacy,  London.,  N.  D. 

The  British  Theatre:  a  Collection  of  the  Most  Approved  Tragedies, 
Comedies,  Operas,  and  Farces,  2  vols.  London,  1828. 

The  British  Theatre,  or,  a  Collection  of  Plays,  etc.  Mrs.  Inchbald, 
25  vols.  London,  1808. 

The  British  Theatre,  31  vols.  London,  1791-1796. 

The  English  Drama,  27  vols.  London,  1818. 

French's  Acting  Edition  of  plays,  various  dates,  Samuel  French, 
New  York. 

Lacy's  Acting  Edition  of  Plays,  Lacy,  London,  various  dates. 

The  Modern  British  Drama,  5  vols.  London,  1811. 

The  Modern  Theatre,  Mrs.  Inchbald,  10  vols.,  London,  1811. 

The  New  English  Drama,  with  Prefatory  Remarks,  etc.,  W.  Ox- 
berry,  London.,  N.  D. 

Plays,  a  collection,  4  vols.  various  dates. 

General  Works. 

Archer,  William,  English  Dramatists  of  To-day,  Boston,  1882. 

Archer,  William,  About  the  Theatre,  London,   1886. 

Biographia  Dramatica,  Baker,  Reed,  and  Jones,  London,  1812. 

Baker,  H.  B.,  History  of  the  London  Stage  and  its  Famous  Play- 
ers (1576-1903),  London,  1904. 

Beers,  Henry  A.,  A  History  of  English  Romanticism  in  the  Eigh- 
teenth Century,  New  York,  1899. 

Boulton,  W.  B.,  The  Amusements  of  Old  London,  2  vols.  London, 
1901. 

Brooke,  C.  F.  Tucker,  The  Tudor  Drama,  Boston,  1911. 

Cook,  Dutton,  Nights  at  the  Play,  A  view  of  the  English  Stage, 
2  vols.  London,  1888.  < 

Doran,  Dr.  (John),  Annals  of  the  English  Stage  from  Thomas 
Betterton  to  Edmund  Kean,  2  vols.  New  York,  1865. 

Elton,  Oliver,  A  Survey  of  English  Literature,  1780-1830,  2  vols. 
London,  1912. 

Filon,  Augustin,  The  English  Stage,  London  and  New  York,  1897. 

Fitzgerald,  Percy  (Hethering),  A  New  History  of  the  English 
,  Stage  from  the  Restoration  to  the  Liberty  of  the  Theatres, 
2  vols.  London,  1882. 

Frost,  Thomas,  Circus  Life  and  Circus  Celebrities,  London,  1881. 

Genest,  John,  Some  Account  of  the  English  Stage  from  the  Restora- 
tion in  1660  to  1830,  10  vols.  Bath,  1832. 

Hamilton,  Clayton,  The  Theory  of  the  Theatre,  New  York,  1910. 

Hastings,  Charles,  The  Theatre,  Its  Development  in  France  and 
England,  etc.  London,  1901. 


Hazlitt,  William,  A  View  of  the  English  Stage,  London,  1906. 

Hogarth,  George,  Memoirs  of  the  Musical  Drama.  London,  1836. 

Mason,  James  Frederick,  The  Melodrama  in  France  from  the  Revo- 
lution to  the  Beginning  of  the  Romantic  Drama,  1791-1830, 
Baltimore,  1912. 

Matthews,  J.  Brander,  Development  of  Drama,  New  York,  1908. 
French    Dramatists    of    the    Nineteenth    Century,    New    York, 
1910.       A  Study  of  the  Drama,  New  York,  1910. 

Nettleton,  George  Henry,  English  Drama  of  the  Restoration  and 
the  Eighteenth  Century,  New  York,  1914. 

Nicholson,  Watson,  The  Struggle  for  a  Free  Stage  in  London, 
New  York,  1906. 

Oliver,  D.  E.,  The  English  Stage,  its  Origin  and  Modern  Develop- 
ments, London,  1912. 

Price,  W.  T.,  The  Technique  of  the  Drama,  New  York,  1892. 

Schelling,  F.  E.,  Elizabethan  Drama,  1558-1642,  2  vols  Boston  and 
New  York,  1908.  English  Drama,  London  and  New  York, 
1914.  English  Literature  During  the  Lifetime  of  Shakes- 
peare, New  York,  1910. 

Symons,  Arthur,  The  Romantic  Movement  in  English  Literature. 

Talfourd,  T.  Noon,  Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Writings,  Boston, 
1857. 

Thorndike,  Ashley  H.,  Tragedy,  Boston,  1908. 

Walker,  Hugh,  The  Literature  of  the  Victorian  Era,  Cambridge, 
1910. 

Ward,  Adolphus  W.,  A  History  of  English  Dramatic  Literature  to 
the  Death  of  Queen  Anne,  3  vols.  revised,  London,  1890. 

Memoirs,  Reminiscences,  etc. 

Bulwer,  The  Life  of  Edward,  First  Lord  of  Lytton,  by  his  Grand- 
son, the  Earl  of  Lytton,  2  vols.  London,  1913. 

Bunn,  Alfred,  The  Stage,  Both  Before  and  Behind  the  Curtain,  2 
vols.  Philadelphia,  1840. 

Burney,  Francis,  The  Diary  and  Letters  of,  ed.  by  Sarah  Chaun- 
cey  Woolsey,  3  vols.  Boston,  1890. 

Gibber,  An  Apology  for  the  Life  of  Mr.  Colley  Cobber.  New  Ed.  with 
notes  by  R.  W.  Lowe,  2  vols.  London,  1889. 

Colman:  Memoirs  of  the  Colman  Family,  including  their  Corres- 
pondence, etc.,  by  Richard  Brinsley  Peake,  2  vols.  London,  1841. 

Dibdin:  The  Reminiscences  of  Thomas  Dibdin  of  the  Theatres 
Royal,  2  vols.  London,  1827. 

Elliston:  Memoirs  of  Robert  William  Elliston,  Comedian,  by 
George  Raymond,  2  vols.  London,  1846. 

Garrick:  Memoirs  of  David  Garrick,  Esq.  etc.,  by  Thomas  Da  vies, 
4th.  ed.,  London,  1784. 

Kemble:  Reminiscences  of  the  Life  of  John  Philip  Kemble,  in- 
cluding a  History  of  the  Stage  from  the  Time  of  Garrick  to 
the  Present  Period,  James  Boaden,  2  vols.  London,  1826. 

Kelly:  Reminiscences  of  Michael  Kelly  of  the  King's  Theatre, 
etc.,  2  vols.  London,  1826. 

Macready's  Reminiscences  and  Selections  from  his  Diaries,  and 
Letters,  ed.  by  Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  New  York,  1875. 

Siddons:  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  S'iddons,  etc.,  by  James  Boaden,  2  vols. 
London,  1827. 

Southey:  Selections  from  the  Letters  of  Robert  Southey,  ed.  by 
John  Wood  Warter,  4  vols.  London,  1856. 


Miscellaneous. 

A  Forgotten  Creditor  of  the  English  Stage,  by  Jos.  E.  Gillet,  19th. 

Cent.    71:    783. 

The  Melodrama,  Harry  James  Smith,  Atlantic  Monthly,  99:   320. 
Parliamentary  Papers,   vol.   140,   Index   to   Minutes   of  Evidence   of 

the   Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  Dramatic 

Literature,    1832. 
Report   from    the    Select    Committee    of   Dramatic    Literature   with 

the  Minutes  of  Evidence,  Ordered  by  The  House  of  Commons 

to  be  printed,  2  August,  1832. 
In   addition,   a  number   of  the  Magazines   and   the   Papers   of   the 

period   have   been    examined. 


A  Partial  List  of  Melodramas  written  between  1800  and  1840. 

This   list   is   arranged   chronologically,   the   plays   written   by   a 

particular   playwright   being   grouped   under   his   name. 

1800 — Boaden,  J.,  The  Voice  of  Nature;  Geisweiler,  Marie,  Crime 
from  Ambition. 

1801 — Lewis,   M.    G.,   Adelmorn,   the   Outlaw. 

1802 — Dibdin,  T.,  II  Bondocani,  or  The  Caliph  Robber;  Holcroft,  T., 
A  Tale  of  Mystery;  Lewis,  M.  G.,  Alfonso,  King  of  Castile; 
Reynolds,  F.,  The  Exile. 

1803 — Boaden,  The  Maid  of  Bristol;  Cobb,  J.,  Wife  of  Two  Hus- 
bands; Dimond,  W.,  The  Hero  of  the  North;  Gunning,  Miss, 
Wife  of  Two  Husbands;  Lewis,  M.  G.,  The  Harper's  Daugh- 
ter from  his  The  Minister,  taken  from  Schiller's  Kabale  und 
Liebe;  Reynolds,  The  Caravan;  or,  The  Driver  and  his  Dog. 

1804 — Anonymous,  The  Siege  of  Gibraltar;  Baylis,  J.,  Lodoiska 
and  The  Mysteries  of  Udolpho;  Dibdin,  Guilty  or  Not  Guilty, 
and  Valentine  and  Orson ;  Dimond,  The  Hunter  of  the  Alps. 

1805 — Elliston,  W.,  The  Venetian  Outlaw;  Farley,  J.,  Aggression; 
Holcroft,  The  Lady  of  the  Rock;  Lewis,  Rugantino;  Powell, 
J.,  The  Venetian  Outlaw,  His  Country's  Friend;  Skeffingham, 
Lt.,  Sleeping  Beauty.  (The  plays  by  Elliston,  Lewis,  and 
Powell  during  this  year  were  all  adapted  from  Lewis'  The 
Bravo  of  Venice  that  he  had  taken  from  the  German.) 

1806 — Dimond,  Adrian  and  Orilla;  or,  A  Mother's  Vengeance; 
Holland,  W.  A.,  Augustus  and  Gulielmus;  Hook,  Theodore, 
Tekeli;  or,  The  Siege  of  Montgatz. 

1807 — Hook,  The  Fortress;  Kenney,  Jas.,  The  Blind  Boy,  and  El- 
la Rosenberg;  Lewis,  Adelgitha;  or,  The  Fruits  of  a  Single 
Error,  and  Wood  Daemon. 

1808 — Dibdin,  Forest  of  Herrnanstadt ;  Hook,  Siege  of  St.  Quentin; 
Kemble,  C.,  The  Wanderer;  or,  The  Rights  of  Hospitality; 
Lewis,  Venoni;  or,  The  Novice  of  St.  Marks,(from  the  French); 
Moser,  Jos.,  Nourmahal,  Empress  of  Hindostan. 

1809 — Dibdin,  The  Harper's  Son  and  Duke's  Daughter, (See  also 
1803);  Dimond,  The  Foundling  of  the  Forest;  Kemble,  The 
Point  of  Honour;  Eyre,  The  Vintagers. 

1810 — Arnold,  S.  J.,  Plots!;  Dibdin,  The  Lady  of  the  Lake;  Di- 
mond, Doubtful  Son;  or,  Secrets  of  a  Palace;  and  Gustavus 
Va^a;  Grosette,  H.  M.,  Raymond  and  Agnes;  Kemp,  Jos., 
Siege  of  Isca;  Reynolds,  Free  Knights;  or,  The  Edict  of  Char- 
lemagne. 


1811 — Dibdin,  America,  and  Blood  Will  Have  Blood;  DimoVid,  The 
Peasant  Boy,  and  Royal  Oak;  Eyre,  E.  J.,  The  Lady  of  the 
Lake;  Grossette,  Twenty  Years  Ago;  Kean,  The  Cottage 
Foundling;  Kemble,  Kamchatka;  or,  The  Slave's  Tribute; 
Lewis,  Knight  and  Wood  Daemon;  or,  The  Clock  Strikes 
One,  One  O'Clock;  or,  The  Knight  and  the  Wood  Daemon, 
both  altered  from  The  Wood  Daemon(1807),  Timour  the  Tar- 
tar; Morton,  T.,  The  Knight  of  Snowdown,  from  The  Lady 
of  the  Lake;  Pocock,  I.,  Harry  Le  Roy,(Burletta)  and  Twenty 
Years  Ago. 

1812 — Arnold,  Devil's  Bridge;  Cross,  False  Friend;  or,  The  Assas- 
sin of  the  Rocks;  Reynolds,  The  Virgin  of  the  Sun;  Sher- 
idan, T.,  The  Russian. 

1813 — Anonymous,  Aladdin;  or,  the. Wonderful  Lamp;  Dog  Gelert, 
and  Illusion;  or,  The  Trances  of  Noutjahad;  Pocock,  For 
England,  Ho!  and  The  Miller  and  His  Men. 

1814 — Anonymous,  Black  Princess;  Arnold,  Woodman's  Hut;  or, 
tire  Burning  Forest;  Dimond,  Orphan  of  the  Castle;  or,  the 
Black  Banner;  Harris,  H.,  Forest  of  Bondy;  or,  the  Dog  of 
Montargis. 

1815 — Arnold,  Charles  the  Bold;  or,  the  Siege  of  Nantz;  and  The 
Maid  and  the  Magpie;  or,  Which  is  the  Thief?;  Dibdin,  Mag- 
pie; or,  the  Maid  of  Palaiseau;  Pocock,  John  Du  Bart;  or, 
the  Voyage  to  Poland,  and  Zembuca;  or,  the  Net-maker  and 
his  Wife. 

1816 — Bell,  Watchword;  or,  the  Quinto  Gate;  Dibdin,  Pitcairn's 
Island,  The  Sicilian,  and  The  Silver  Swan;  Dimond,  Broken 
Sword;  Maturin,  C.  R.,  Bertram;  or,  the  Castle  of  St.  Aldo- 
brand;  Morton,  T.,  The  Slave;  Terry,  D.,  Guy  Mannering;  or, 
the  Gypsy's  Prophecy;  Thompson,  Oberon's  Oath;  or,  the 
Paladin  and  the  Princess. 

1817 — Anonymous,  Fazio;  or,  the  Italian  Wife;  Dibdin,  Constan- 
tine  and  Valeria,  The  Invisible  Witness;  or,  the  Chapel  in  the 
Wood,  Khouli  Khan,  The  Murdered  Guest  (Fatal  Curiosity), 
and  Zapolya;  Dimond,  The  Conquest  of  Taranto;  or,  St. 
Clara's  Eve;  Hamilton,  Elphi  Bey;  or,  the  Arab's  Faith; 
Pocock,  Ravens;  or,  the  Force  of  Conscience  and  Robinson 
Crusoe;  or,  the'  Bold  Buccaneer;  Sheil,  R.,  The  Apostate; 
Smith,  O.,  Lolonois;  or,  the  Buccaniers  of  1660;  Soane,  G., 
Falls  of  Clyde  and  The  Innkeeper's  Daughter;  Tobin,  Fisher- 
man's Hut. 

1818 — Anonymous,  Mountain  Chief  and  The  Turret  Clock;  Dib- 
din, The  Reprobate;  Dimond,  Bride  of  Abydos;  Kemble,  S. 
and  H.,  Flodden  Field;  Milner,  H.  M.,  Barmecide;  or,  the  Fatal 
Offering;  Pocock,  Rob  Roy  Macgregor;  or,  Auld  Lang  Syne; 
Raymond,  The  Castle  of  Paluzzi;  or,  The  Extorted  Oath;  Rey- 
nolds, Illustrious  Traveller;  or,  the  Forges  of  Kanzel;  Soane, 
Rob  Roy,  the  Gregarach;  Walker,  Sigesmar,  the  Switzer. 

1819 — Abbott,  Wm.,  Swedish  Patriotism;  or,  the  Signal  Fire;  Cal- 
craft,  J.  W.,  Bride  of  Lammermoor;  Dibdin,  Bride  of  Lam- 
mermoor,  Douglas,  Heart  of  Midlothian,  Lily  of  St.  Leonard's; 
or,  the  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian,  The  Prophecy;  or,  the  Giant 
Spectre;  and  Zuma;  or,  the  Tree  of  Health;  Dimond,  Heart 
of  Mid-Lothian;  or,  the  Lily  of  St.  Leonard's;  Milner,  The 
Jew  of  Lubeck;  or,  the  Heart  of  a  Father;  Phillips,  R.,  Hero- 
ine; or,  a  Daughter's  Courage;  Soane,  The  Dwarf  of  Naples, 

—4— 


and    Self -Sacrifice;    or,    the    Maid   of   the    Cottage;     Terry,    D., 
The  Lily  of  St.  Leonard's;   or,  the  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian. 

1820 — Anonymous,  Ivanhoe;  or,  the  Knight  Templar;  Dibdin, 
Belisarius,  Ivanhoe;  or,  the  Jew's  Daughter,  and  The  Ruffian 
Boy;  Farley,  J.,  Battle  of  Bothwell;  Moncrieff,  W.  T.,  Ivan- 
hoe; or,  the  Jewess;  Mortor>,  T.,  Henri  Quatre;  or,  Paris  in 
the  Olden  Time;  O'Keeffe,  (altered)  Iroquois;  or,  the  Cana- 
dian Basket  Maker;  Planche,  J.  R.,  The  Vampire;  or,  the 
Bride  of  the  Isles;  Soane,  The  Hebrew;  Terry,  Antiquary; 
Walker,  C.  E.,  The  Warlock  of  the  Glen. 

1821 — Dibdin,  Fate  of  Calais,  Kenilworth,  and  Sir  Arthur;  Fitz- 
ball,  Father  and  Son;  or,  the  Rock  of  La  Charbonniere. 

1822 — Dibdin,  Montrose,  and  The  Pirate;  Dimond,  Tale  of  Other 
Times;  or,  Which  is  the  Bride;  Elliston(?),  Two  Galley  Slaves; 
Fitzball,  The  Fortunes  of  Nigel;  or,  James  I  and  his  Times, 
and  Joan  of  Arc;  or,  the  Maid  of  Orleans;  Pocock,  Montrose; 
or,  the  Children  of  the  Mist. 

1823 — Anonymous,  Augusta;  or,  the  Blind  Girl;  Dibdin,  The  Chi- 
nese Sorcerer;  Ebsworth,  Rosalie;  Fitzball,  Peveril  of  the 
Peak;  or,  the  Days  of  King  Charles  II;  Jerrold,  D.,  The  Witch 
of  Derncleugh  (Guy  Mannering) ;  Moncrieff,  The  Cataract 
•of  the  Ganges;  or,  {he  Rajah's  Daughter;  PlancKe,  Cortez;  or, 
the  Conquest  of  Mexico;  Terry,  Nigel;  or,  the  Crown  Jewels. 

1824 — Anonymous,  The  Castellan's  Oath,  and  Presumption;  or, 
the  Fate  of  Frankenstein;  Fitzball,  Der  Freischutz;  Milner, 
Man  and  Monster;  or,  the  Fate  of  Frankenstein;  Soane,  Der 
Freischutz. 

1825 — Anonymous,  Faustus,  and  Jocko,  the  Brazilian  Monkey; 
Dibdin,  Emmiline  of  Hungary,  and  Peacock's  Feather;  or,  the 
Grand  Caravan;  Fitzball,  The  Pilot;  Milner,  Masaniello;  or, 
the  Dumb  Girl  of  Portici;  Planche,  The  Caliph  and  the  Cade; 
Soane,  Masaniello,  the  Fisherman  of  Naples. 

1826 — Anonymous,    Knights   of   the   Cross;    or,   the   Hermit's   Prop- 
hecy;   Buckstone,  J.  B.,  Luke  the  Laborer;     Fitzball,   Floating 
Beacon;    or,    the    Norwegian   Wreckers;     Planche,    Oberon;    or, 
the  Elf  King's  Oath;    Pocock,  Peveril  of  the  Peak,  and  Wood- 
stock. 

1827 — Anonymous,  The  Goldsmith;  Haines,  J.  T.,  The  Idiot  Wit- 
ness; or,  A  Tale  of  Blood;  Macfarren,  Bby  of  Santillane;  or, 
Gil  Bias  and  the  Robbers;  Milner,  The  Gambler's  Fate;  or, 
Thirty  Years  of  a  Gambler's  L  fe. 

1828— Farrell,  J.,  The  Dumb  Girl  of  Genoa;  or,  the  Bandit  Mer- 
chant; Jerrold,  Ambrose  Gwinett,  (pub.)  and  Fifteen  Years 
of  a  Drunkard's  Life;  Peake,  R.  B.,  The  Bottle  Imp;  Planche, 
Charles,  the  XII;  Reynolds,  Edward,  the  Black  Prince;  Thomp- 
son, C.  P.,  Dumb  Savoyard  and  His  Monkey. 

1829 — Anonymous,  Thierna-na-oge;  or,  the  Prince  of  the  Lakes; 
Buckstone,  Bear  Hunters;  or,  the  Fatal  Ravine,  and  Presump- 
tive Evidence;  or,  Murder  will  Out;  Fitzball,  Devil's  Elixir; 
or,  the  Shadowless  Man;  Jerrold,  Black-eyed  S'usan;  or,  'All 
in  the  Downs',  and  The  Tower  of  Lochlain;  Lacy,  Maid  of 
Judah;  or,  the  Knights  Templars:  Planche,  The  Brigand. 

1830 — Anonymous,  Ninnetta;   or,  the  Maid  of  Palaiseau   (See,  Maid 
and  Magpie);    Jerrold,  Devil's  Ducat;    or,  the  Gift  of  Mammon, 
and  the   Mutiny  at  Nore;     Pocock,  The  Robber's  Wife;     Ray- 
mond, Robert  the  Devil. 


1831 — Milner,  Mazeppa;   or,  the  Wild  Horse  of  Tartary. 

1832 — Bernard,  S.,  Indian  Girl;  Fitzball,  Hofer,  the  Tell  of  the 
Tyrol;  Jerrold,  The  Rent-Day;  Moncrieff,  Eugene  Aram; 
or,  Saint  Robert's  Cave;  Webster,  B.  J.,  Paul  Clifford,  The 
Highwayman.  • 

1833 — Fitzball,  Jonathan  Bradford;  or,  the  Murder  at  the  Way- 
side Inn,  and  King  of  the  Mist;  Knowles,  S.,  The  Wife;  A 
Tale  of  Mantua;  Pocock,  The  Ferry  and  the  Mill;  Serle,  T.  J., 
The  Yeoman's  Daughter. 

1834 — Almar,  G.,  Oliver  Twist;  Buckstone,  Agnes  de  Vere;  or, 
the  Wife's  Revenge;  Pocock,  King  Arthur  and  the  Knights 
of  the  Round  Table,  a  Christmas  Equestrian  Spectacle. 

1835 — Fitzball,  The  Note-Forger;  Jerrold,  The  Hazard  of  the  Die; 
Oxenford,  J.,  The  Dice  of  Death. 

1836— 

1837 — Almar,  The  Battle  of  S'edgemoor;  or,  the  Days  of  Kirk 
and  Monmouth:  Dibdin,  Suil  Dhuv,  the  Coiner;  Pocock,  Al- 
fred the  Great;  or,  the  Enchanted  Standard. 

1838 — Lover,  S.,  Rory  O'More;  Lytton,  Bulwer,  The  Lady  of 
Lyons;  Rayner,  B.  F.,  The  Dumb  Boy  of  Manchester. 

1839 — Lytton,  Richelieu;  or,  the  Conspiracy;  Stirling,  E.,  Jane 
Lomax;  or,  a  Mother's  Crime;  Talfourd,  T.  N.,  The  Massacre 
of  Glencoe.  (This  is  probably  only  another  title  for  his  Glen- 
coe;  or,  the  Fate  of  the  Macdonalds,  published  the  next  year.) 

Additional   Plays. 

No  date  appears  on  the  following  plays  nor  has  it  been  pos- 
sible for  the  writer  to  ascertain  the  dates  elsewhere. 
Anonymous,   Bamfylde   More   Carew;    or,    the   Gypsy   of   the   Glen; 

The    Cornish    Miners. 

Dibdin,  Abyssinia;  or,  British  Travellers;  Azim;  Chapel  in  the 
"Wood;  The  Duke  and  the  Devil;  The  Enchanted  Girdle;  or, 
Winki,  the  Witch,  and  the  Ladies  of  Samarcand;  Fatal  Island; 
Ferdinand,  Count  Fathom;  Hermit  of  Mount  Pausilippo;  The 
Italian  Wife;  Kedeth;  or,  the  Hag  of  Poland;  Knights  of  the 
Lion;  Knights  of  Rhodes;  Llewellyn;  Love,  Hatred,  and  Re- 
venge; Lucretia,  the  Abbot  of  San  Martino;  President  and 
Peasant's  Daughter;  Queen  of  Golconda;  The  Red  Man  and 
the  Savage;  S'canderberg. 
Fitzball,  Carl  Milhan. 

Morton,    John    and    Thomas,    Writing    on    the    Wall. 
Morton,   Thomas,   Judith    of   Geneva. 
Moser,   J.,  The  Barber   of  Pera. 
Rannie,  J.,  The  Cottage  on  the  Cliffs. 
Rogers,  W.,  Black  Hugh,  the  Outlaw. 


— —  6  — 


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